


Attack of the Empire

by IWantColouredRain



Series: The Other Original Trilogy [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-12 06:28:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15989573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWantColouredRain/pseuds/IWantColouredRain
Summary: Three years have passed since the destruction of the Death Star, but all is not well for the Rebel Alliance. The sinister Darth Vader, obsessed with capturing Jedi Knight Leia Naberrie, has dispatched probes and troops all over the galaxy, in search of the Alliance's hidden base.





	1. Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia is attacked on Hoth.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Hoth**

_"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away..._

_It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy._

_Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, the group of freedom fighters has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth._

_The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding the Last of the Jedi, Leia Naberrie, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space..."_

* * *

_**Space, 3 ABY** _

A Star Destroyer flew through space, releasing Imperial probe robots from its' underside. They zoomed off in various directions, one of them heading straight toward the planet Hoth where it landed heavily on its' ice-covered surface. A large explosion marked the point of impact.

A weird mechanical sound rose above the whining of the wind. An Imperial probe robot, with several extended sensors, emerged from the smoke-shrouded crater, before floating across the snow plain where it disappeared into the distance.

* * *

_**Hoth, 3 ABY** _

A small figure gallops across the windswept ice slope. The bundled rider is mounted on a large grey snow lizard, a creature called a tauntaun. Curving plumes of snow rose from beneath the speeding paws of the two-legged beast.

The rider galloped skilfully up a slope where she reined the lizard to a stop. Pulling off her protective goggles, Commander Leia Naberrie, removed a pair of electro-binoculars from her utility belt and raised them to her bright blue eyes. Through the green-tinged lenses, she could see smoke rising from a crater, one she immediately recognized as what seemed to be a meteor crash site.

The wind whipped at Leia's fur-lined cap as she activated a comlink transmitter. Her tauntaun shifted and moaned nervously beneath her. She patted it reassuringly on the neck, sending soothing feelings to it through the Force, as she raised the comlink to her mouth.

"Rogue Leader to Renegade Leader," she called into it. "Han, do you read me?"

" _Loud and clear, Firecracker,"_  he drawled back.

Her lips automatically twitched into a smile at the familiar sound of his voice. She was never sure what to call their relationship. They were together, and they were monogamous, but 'boyfriend and girlfriend' always felt too juvenile to use to describe them. They weren't married either, and Leia was determined that they wouldn't be until the Empire was defeated, though Han had mentioned it a few times. After the Empire fell though, Leia wouldn't mind hyphenating her name to Naberrie-Solo. After.

" _What's up?"_  Han continued.

"Well, I finished my circle," she reported. "I don't pick up any life readings."

Han scoffed at that.  _"That's 'cause there isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser," he retorted. "The sensors are placed. I'm going back. You comin'?"_

"Not yet," Leia replied. "I'll see you shortly. There's a meteorite that hit the ground near here. I want to check it out. It won't take long."

" _Be careful,"_ Han told her, his voice softening to the tone reserved for her. _"You're still recovering, remember?"_

Leia grimaced at the reminder. Her side throbbed with the memory of her latest battle with the Inquisitorius. They were obsessed with getting her, and the last time only the Force's aid, her teammates' timely arrival, and the orders for her to be brought in alive, had saved her.

"You don't need to remind me," she reassured him. "I'll be fine, don't worry. See you back at the base, Flyboy."

" _See you there,"_  Han agreed. The conversation over, Leia clicked off her transmitter and reined back on her nervous lizard, sending another wave of calmness through her.

"Hey, steady girl," she cooed. "What's the matter? You smell something?"

A second later, the Force sent her a warning, and she spun around. As she turned, she heard a monstrous howl and saw an eleven-foot-tall shape towering over him. A Wampa Ice Creature, one of Hoth's deadly predators, lunged at her ferociously.

She flung out a hand desperately, using the Force to send the Wampa flying away from her. Unfortunately, Leia's continued weakness, combined with the physical strength of the beast itself, meant it only staggered back a few feet, instead of being sent toppling down the slope, as the Jedi had intended to happen.

She pulled her lightsabre from her belt, igniting it with a 'whoosh!' Her tauntaun moved anxiously again, but Leia knew that she couldn't spare the time to try and calm her down. Tauntauns weren't good for any type of fight, but the snow was too deep for Leia to walk through, let alone fight on, so staying on her tauntaun was the only option. Unfortunately, while she was restricted by her half-healed injuries, and her mount, the wampa didn't suffer from the same limitations.

It charged her again, and she slashed it across the chest. But, the combination of the attack, and the lightsabre's attack, finally managed to frighten her ride beyond its' limits. The tauntaun reared, and Leia was sent flying, her lightsabre sent spinning from her hand by the momentum.

Her training kicked in, and she curled into a ball, tucking her head between her knees and covering it with her arms to protect herself. She landed heavily a deep snow drift, the sudden cold and impact shocking her for a minute. She regained her bearings, but not in time to avoid a sudden pain raking across her back. She managed to turn onto her side, feeling the familiar sensation of blood pouring from her back, and thrust out her fist. Dizzy, she clenched her fist and twisted. Through the approaching blackness taking over her senses, she could feel the Wampa's death as she snapped its' neck, feeling a surge of regret for doing so, right before she finished her fall into unconsciousness.

* * *

_**Echo Base, Hoth** _

Han arrived back at the newest base, named Echo Base by Command. It was their fifth base in three years, with the Rebels having fled the last one, an old base on Crait, after a Q'Itane named Trusk Berinato had alerted the elite Imperial battle unit, SCAR Squadron, of their presence. Only the information provided by Neena Celchu, a Rebel spy disguised as a musician, that they had managed to flee in time.

Han scowled at the memory, remembering how SCAR had attacked, led by yet another Force-damned Inquisitor. He, Leia, Luke, Winter and Chewie had not yet left when they arrived. He, Leia and Chewie had volunteered to go after Luke, who had been lured away by his sister's capture by Berinato. They had been fleeing, when the Inquisitor had used his powers to drag the Falcon back down to the planet.

He, Luke, Winter, and Chewie had fought a deadly battle against the ruthless SCAR troopers, supported by the rest of Rogue Squadron, that also stayed to help them, while Leia fought the Inquisitor. By the Force's grace, they had survived the fight, but Leia had spent over a month in the hospital, two Rogues had been killed, and Winter was now short several fingers. They were working on getting her prosthetics, but it was hard going. A lot of former supporters had pulled away after Kenobi's death.

Han shook away his thoughts, as he swung off his lizard and pulled off his goggles, ignoring the Rebel troopers rushing about unloading supplies and otherwise securing their new base.

He walked into the main hangar deck toward the Millennium Falcon, which is parked among several fighters, suppressing his shivers. They had made heating a top priority, but it was still far from being a liveable heat, in Han's opinion.

Mechanics, R2 units, and various other droids hurried about, and Han dodged them. He arrived at the Millennium Falcon where his Wookiee co-pilot, and best friend, Chewbacca, was welding on a central lifter. Chewie stopped his work and lifted his face shield, growling an irritated greeting to his friend.

"Chewie!" Han snapped back.

The Wookiee grumbled in reply.

"All right, all right," Han patted the air, rolling his eyes. "Don't lose your temper. I'll come right back and give you a hand, after I've reported in."

Chewie huffed, but put his mask back on and returned to his welding as Han left.

The Captain made his way to where a makeshift command centre had been set up in a blasted area of thick ice. The low-ceilinged room was a beehive of activity. Controllers, troops, and droids move about setting up electronic equipment and monitoring radar signals.

General Rieekan was bent over a console, and he straightened up at Han's approach.

"Solo?" Rieekan raised an eyebrow in a silent request for the Captain's report.

"No sign of life out there, General," Han told him. "The sensors are in place. You'll know if anything comes around."

Rieekan nodded. "Has Commander Naberrie reported in yet?"

"No," Han shook his head. "She's checking out a meteorite that hit near her."

Rieekan gestured at the screen beside him. "With all the meteor activity in this system, it's going to be difficult to spot approaching ships," he noted with a deep frown.

Han nodded, frowning in thought. "I doubt this base'll last long," he mused, running a hand through his hair.

"You don't know that," a new voice joined the conversation.

The two men turned to look at Prince Luke as he approached. Signs that the war was wearing him down showed in his drained expression and the dark shadows under his eyes, along with his thin frame. Luke wasn't a fighter, he was one of the Alliance's 'public faces.' He gave propaganda speeches, and organized missions, and helped to strategize. But he had lost his planet, most of his family, his people and his position as heir to Alderaan in a single attack. The war affected everyone, whether they stood on the front lines or not.

"It's isolated, and there's no reason for the Empire to suspect that we would hide here," Luke pointed out. "We could manage to hide here for ages, if we're careful." The regular running he had suddenly been forced into, as well as the sudden reduction from the finery of the aristocracy, to the fold-up mattresses used by the Alliance, had taken its' toll on his health, and he was sick of sleeping in cramped ship quarters that had been converted from cargo bays, as was typical for him now.

Han gave a dry smile at that. "We can be as careful as we want, Your Highness," he drawled. "But that won't change the fact that this planet just isn't hospitable enough for us to stay on long term. Hell, the Chalactans can't come here, full stop. And they're not the only ones."

Rieekan raised a hand to put an end to the conversation, looking stern. "You both have good points," he stated firmly. "We do not intend to be here for too long. Hoth is simply too strategically unreliable for that. But we  _do_  hope to manage to stay here for a few months, at least. We cannot afford to keep moving so often, it's putting too much of a strain on our resources."

That was an understatement, as the entire Rebellion (save anyone hospitalized with major injuries or pregnancy) had been put on half-rations months ago, and there was no sign of it ending anytime soon.

"At any rate, you're dismissed Solo," Rieekan continued. "Tell Naberrie I want her report, whenever you see her."

"Will do," Han replied, giving a nod, before turning and leaving. Luke hastily followed him.

"There something I can do for you, Your Highness?" Han asked, eyeing Luke warily. They were linked by their mutual love for Leia, though to Han it was romantic, and to Luke it was platonic. But they rarely 'hung out', so to speak, and certainly not without Leia to smooth over ruffled feathers.

"I need some advice," Luke admitted grudgingly, looking pained to say it. Han's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that.

" _You_ need advice from _me_ ," he repeated doubtfully.

"Yes!" Luke snapped back, his cheeks reddening, and not from the cold.

"What type of advice?" Han asked.

Leia's voice in his head kept him from showing his internal desire to mock the other man, and he bit back a sigh. He had never been so polite, or devoted to a cause, until he had met Leia Naberrie. If not for her, he would have never joined the Alliance. Or at least, he would have left after the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. But he couldn't leave her, not willingly at least. Her heart had been broken too many times, for him to abandon her.

Luke looked away for a moment, before looking back at Han. "Why do you and Leia stay together?" he asked softly.

"What?" Han blinked in surprise. Whatever he had been expecting, that wasn't it.

"You're both near the top, Leia actually tops, the most wanted lists," Luke went on. "Your lives are in danger, and yet you somehow stay together, despite the pressure. And, despite your relationship, you never let it get in the way of your duties to the Alliance. How?"

Han frowned at him, suddenly remembering how much time Luke had been spending with a certain Alderaanian spy lately, and beginning to suspect where this had all come from.

"Leia wouldn't be the woman I loved if she didn't put the galaxy first," he said after a minute of silence. "Saving the galaxy, her devotion to the cause. It's all a part of what made me fall in love with her in the first place. The passion that she has when she talks about a life without the Empire terrorizing everyone. And, I would never be even close to worthy of her, if I didn't try and bring her dream into existence."

It might not have been a good answer, but it was all Han could give. Luke frowned, looking away. "Hey, what's going on, Luke?" Han asked, wishing that Leia was there to help. She and Luke seemed to be able to read each other's minds most of the time. If not for the fact that it was  _Leia_ , and he knew that she would never even consider betraying him, Han would probably have been jealous of their mutual devotion to each other.

Before Luke could reply, his comlink beeped. "Never mind," he sighed, after checking the message left on it. "I need to go. Thanks, Han." He hurried off, leaving Han staring after him. After a moment, the captain shook his head and turned to head to the hanger, to help Chewie with the Falcon's repairs.

* * *

A familiar stream of beeps and whistles heralded the approach of Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio, Luke and Leia's shared droids. They appeared around a corner and moved along an ice wall toward the main hangar, locked in an argument, as usual.

"Don't try to blame me," 3PO was snapping. "I didn't ask you to turn on the thermal heater. I merely commented that it was freezing in the prince's chamber. But it's  _supposed_ to be freezing. How are we going to dry out all his clothes? I really don't know."

Artoo beeped out a stream of protesting whistles.

"Oh, switch off," 3PO huffed back, irritated with his friend.

The two robots came to a stop at Han's old freighter where Han and Chewie were struggling with their central lifters.

"What'd you take this apart for?" Han grumbled to Chewie. "How're we gonna fly with both of these pulled? It won't take off, let alone go to hyperspace, if we don't get this fixed."

Chewie grunted irritably in reply.

"Excuse me, sir," Threepio said politely to Han.

"Put them both back together right now," Han ordered Chewie sternly, ignoring the droid. He didn't like Threepio, and preferred to ignore him as much as he possibly could. It drove Leia crazy, of course, but 3PO was more Luke's droid then hers, just like R2 was more Leia's than Luke's. And Han  _did_ like R2.

"Might I have a word with you, please?" 3PO pressed.

Han huffed and turned. "What do you want?"

"Well, it's Prince Luke, sir," Threepio explained politely. "He's been trying to get you on the communicator."

"I turned it off," Han replied flatly.

"Oh," Threepio blinked. "Well, Prince Luke is wondering about Mistress Leia. She hasn't come back yet. He doesn't know where she is."

Han rose, concern flashing over his face he had been back as he checked his chrono and realized that he had been back for almost five hours, now. Leia should have returned hours ago. He had been distracted by the repairs, and had assumed that she was busy in a meeting or something.

"I don't know where she is," he said tightly.

"Nobody knows where she is," Threepio informed him.

"What do you mean, "nobody knows"?" Han snapped. He glanced at the fading light at the entrance of the ice cave as night slowly began to fall on the planet. That was the one good thing about Hoth. It had long days, and short nights.

"Well, uh, you see..." Threepio started.

Han ignored him and jumped off the lift, Threepio following him.

"Deck Officer!" Han called. "Deck Officer!"

"Excuse me, sir," Threepio began. "Might I inqu –"

Han put his hand over Threepio's mouth as the deck officer approached.

"Yes, sir?" the officer asked respectfully. A lieutenant, he was several ranks below Han, who was rumoured to be up for a promotion soon.

"Do you know where Commander Naberrie is?" Han demanded.

The officer grimaced and shook his head in denial. "I haven't seen her. It's possible that she came in through the south entrance." His voice was doubtful.

Han glared at the unfortunate man. "It's possible?" he scoffed. "Why don't you go find out? It's getting dark out there."

"Yes, sir," the deck officer agreed, before he hurriedly left.

Han took his hand off Threepio's mouth.

"Excuse me, sir," Threepio sniffed. "Might I inquire what's going on?"

"Why not?" Han replied dryly, beginning to stride off.

"Impossible man," Threepio complained softly to Artoo. "Come along, Artoo, let's go and find Prince Luke. Between ourselves, I think that Mistress Leia is in considerable danger."


	2. Visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia has a vision of her late Master.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. I'm so glad everyone's so pleased I'm back! I hope it lives up to expectations, I shall certainly do my best, anyway. BTW: Neena is an Alderaanian musician who grew up in Bail Organa's household and later became an Alliance spy. I chose her to be Luke's love interest, because it basically gives me someone to mold however I want, without it being an actual OC, which I hate. One or two, fine. But keep 'em in the background!**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Visions of Dagobah and the Deceased**

The deck officer and his assistant hurried towards Han as he entered the tunnel.

"Sir, Commander Naberrie hasn't come in through the south entrance," the Deck Officer reported. "She might have forgotten to check in."

Han scoffed scornfully at that. "Not likely," he denied, shaking his head. "Leia's way too responsible and experienced to do something like that. Are the speeders ready?"

"Not yet," the DO replied. "We're having some trouble adapting them to the cold."

"Then we'll have to go out on tauntauns," Han decided without a second thought.

"Sir, the temperature's dropping too rapidly!" The DO protested.

Han shot him a cold glare. "That's right. And Leia's out in it."

"I'll cover sector twelve," the Assistant DO offered. "Have com-control set screen alpha."

Han gave a curt nod before turning away. He pushed through the troops and mounted a tauntaun. The DO followed him.

"Your tauntaun'll freeze before you reach the first marker," the DO warned.

"Then I'll see you in one of Corellia's seven hells!" Han retorted as he maneuvered his mount out of the cave and raced into the dark bitter night.

* * *

The jagged face of a huge ice wall sat gloomily in the dim twilight of the Hoth sky.

Leia lay in the drift where she had fallen, her complexion so pale, her skin blended in with the snow. Only the dark green of her coat, and her dark, fur-lined hood, signalled that she was not simply another pile of snow, and when the light was gone and the blizzard had started, she would quickly lose that singular advantage.

Leia groaned, stirring weakly. Her blue eyes darted around and she twitched as she tried to get up. But, she was too weak from her concussion, as well as her time in the snow, to manage. A glint of silver caught her eye, and she forced her head around. She could just barely spy the hilt of her lightsabre, sticking up from the white ground.

It was lying near a pile made up of her gear, fallen out of her pack, about three feet out of reach. Gathering her strength, she focused on the sabre. She rolled into an awkward, half-sitting, half-lying position, and reached for her weapon. As her hand strained towards the weapon, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut in concentration. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, she felt a sharp slap on her palm as the sabre hit her hand. Automatically, she snapped her fingers closed around it, and adjusted her grip.

" _Your lightsabre is your life, Leia!"_ she remembered Obi-Wan's stern words, when she first presented her newly-built lightsabre to him.  _"Never lose it!"_

Before that, she had his spare lightsabre, belonging to his first apprentice, Anakin Skywalker. But she had never been as comfortable with it as she was with her own, built using the last kyber crystal retrieved from Tython. The Empire had destroyed it two months later. Obi-Wan's eyes had shone proudly as he examined her painstakingly built weapon.

She glanced around, seeing her tauntaun and the wampa dead nearby. Her supplies were obviously a lost cause, and she knew that she was too weak to make her way back to base without help from someone. And at least if she stayed in place, Han would know her last location, as they had been speaking right before she was attacked by the predator.

But, if she  _didn't_  do something, she would most certainly freeze to death before being found. The sky was darkening rapidly, and everyone had been warned to be inside by nightfall, as there were nightly blizzards on the planet. It would be far too cold for her body to survive.

But, of course, she was a Jedi, which gave her certain advantages over the rest of the Alliance. She secured her sabre on her belt, adjusted herself to be sitting up straight in a lotus meditation pose, and closed her eyes. She began breathing, and concentrating on the flow of the Force, moving constantly through her body.

Steadily, carefully, she began redirecting it. She placed a barrier around her organs, shielding them from failure, and worked on lowering her body temperature and metabolism to a standstill, until she was deep within a hibernation. Her breathing became so shallow, not a single puff of air came from her mouth. As she worked, the world became more and more distant, and she fell deeper into the meditative trance.

* * *

Just outside Echo Base's main hanger, Artoo stood in the falling snow, beeping worriedly. Threepio moved stiffly over to him. His golden arms were placed on his hips, and he had a frown on his metal face.

"You must come along now, Artoo," Threepio demanded. "There's really nothing more we can do. And my joints are freezing up."

Artoo beeped in reply, long and low.

"Don't say things like that!" Threepio snapped back. "Of course we'll see Mistress Leia again. She'll be quite all right, you'll see.

Stupid little short-circuit," he added to himself in an undertone. "She'll be quite all right." With that, Threepio turned to go back inside the main hangar. Artoo mournfully kept his vigil, staring out over the icy landscape in search of his beloved mistress.

* * *

Luke stood inside the dark entrance to the Rebel base, waiting for a sign of his two friends. He shivered in the cold wind as, nearby, Chewie sat with his head in his hands. He glanced away only once, when Threepio came in, Artoo following in obvious reluctance.

"Any sign of her, them?"

The group all started and turned around in surprise. The questioner was a young woman, about twenty-four years-old, with a world-weary expression. She had curly brown hair, forced into a tight braid with loose strands escaping to fly about her head. A fringe hid a thin scar going over her forehead. Her chocolate-brown eyes had deep shadows underneath, and her features were sharp from lack of eating properly, like most of the Rebels. She was dressed in a pair of black cargo pants, dirty combat boots and a faded navy snow-jacket, unzipped to show her black undershirt. Like her younger sister, Pooja Naberrie had sworn not to wear anything other than mourning colours, until the day the Empire fell.

Beside her was another woman. Neena Celcho was also dark haired, but she had green eyes, and her skin was paler. Neena, an Alderaanian survivor, was a musician who had grown up as Winter Organa's best friend. She had joined the Alliance at fifteen, using her job as a travelling musician as a cover for her espionage. Pooja had become her mentor, since Alderaan's loss.

"I'm afraid not, Lieutenant Naberrie," Major Diernan replied sympathetically. "But we haven't given up hope yet."

Pooja's expression was closed-off as she nodded, wandering over to sit beside Luke. Unlike her younger sister, Pooja was not a fighter, she was a spy. Mon Mothma had often commented, looking wistful, that she would have been an amazing Senator, in another time. But, a Rebel family that had been steadily killed off over a decade, a younger sister strong with the Force, and childhood memories of being terrorized by Imperial troops had removed that path.

Instead of arguing for Nubian rights in the Senate, as another version of her might have, Pooja spent her days infiltrating Imperial households, stealing information, and living in terror of hearing that her worst nightmare had come true, and her baby sister was dead as well. She had never considered that she might lose Leia on a rebel base, of all places. The base was the only place that was safe!

Neena sat between her two glum friends, grasping both of their hands. She hadn't been close to Luke as children, despite being his adoptive sister's best friend. Like all young children, they had shared the opinion that boys/girls have cooties, and Luke and Winter, though they loved each other, were very different people. But, the small remaining population of Alderaan had all gotten close to each other of the past few years. Neena sometimes thought, when she looked at the prince's determined brown eyes, that if times were different... She shook the thought away, concentrating on trying to comfort the two.

A lieutenant slipped over to Major Derlin, casting a guilty look at the trio seated on the bench. "Sir, all the patrols are in," he whispered. "There's still no contact from Naberrie or Solo."

"Master Luke, Artoo said that he's been quite unable to pick up any signals, although he does admit that his own range is far too weak to abandon all hope," Threepio announced.

Luke nodded absently in acknowledgment, but it was clear that he was lost in thought.

"Your Highness, Lieutenant Naberrie, there's nothing more we can do tonight," Derlin said, sympathetically but firmly. "The shield doors must be closed."

Pooja buried her head in her hands as Derlin turned to the lieutenant.

"Close the doors," the major ordered.

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant nodded, before he walked away. Chewie let out a long, mournful howl, tossing his back. At the same moment, Artoo begins a complex series of efficient beeps.

"Artoo says the chances of survival are seven hundred seventy-five...to one," Threepio translated in a subdued tone. Luke started to pray silently as Pooja's shoulders starting shaking, the woman no longer able to hold back her sobs. Neena rubbed her back comfortingly, but said nothing. They all knew better than to listen to false words of comfort.

"Actually, Artoo has been known to make mistakes... from time to time," Threepio said desperately. "Oh, dear, oh, dear. Don't worry about Mistress Leia. I'm sure that she'll be all right. She's quite clever, you know... for a human being."

The huge metal doors slammed shut across the entrance of the ice cave. The loud boom echoed throughout the huge cavern, seeming to seal Leia and Han's fate, as Chewie let out another suffering howl.

* * *

Leia was deep within her hibernation trance. On the outside, she was completely still, covered in a dusting of snow. The movement came from her blonde hair, rising and darting around her face in the brisk wind. On the inside of her eyelids, however, colourful images were playing out a series of snapshots.

She saw a tiny troll, leading several clone troopers through a multi-coloured forest. She saw herself on a metal beam, lightsabre clashing against a figure she couldn't make out. She saw Coruscant, a place she had never been to, in flames. That image zoomed in, showing the troll and a younger version of her late Master in a body-strewn hall, despair and grief radiating from them both. Her elder sister, lying in a hospital bed and smiling in a way that Leia had never seen, with a tiny bundle cradled lovingly to her chest. The Death Star destroying Alderaan. Han, staring blankly at the ceiling, his body stiff. The words  _Execute Order 66!_  echoed throughout several of the images, the only clear words that the young Jedi could understand.

Then, another voice broke through to her.  _"Leia! Leia! Listen to me!"_

" _Master?"_ she thought dazedly, her mental voice full of grief as she saw Ahsoka on Malachor. The Jedi called for Ezra and Obi-Wan to take the injured Kanan and Leia away, leaving her to face Vader alone.

" _Yes, it's me."_ The image of Ahsoka's death faded. Instead, Leia saw nothing but blackness, and in the centre, a figure. It was Obi-Wan, face as grim and solemn as it had always been. He was tinted blue, and giving her a firm look. It was one that he gave her whenever he had something serious for her to do, and she rose to attention automatically.

" _Leia," Obi-Wan told her firmly. "You must go to Dagobah."_

" _Dagobah?"_  she repeated bemusedly.

" _Yes."_ He nodded.  _"There, you will finish your training, under the instruction of Master Yoda."_

" _But Master Yoda is dead!"_  Leia protested. Then she hesitated. She and Ezra had always assumed that the legendary Jedi was dead, and the visions they had occasionally received of him were simply how the Force had chosen to present itself in order to deliver the messages it had for them. But maybe...

" _Go to Dagobah, Leia,"_ Obi-Wan reiterated.  _"Become the Knight I have always known that you will be."_

" _Yes, Master,"_ she agreed, just as his image faded and she went from being in a trance, to being unconscious.

At that same moment, Han pulled up and leaped off his mount. He scrambled to Leia, cradling her desperately in his arms. Her head dangled over his arms, and it took a terrifying amount of time for Han to find her pulse. She had used hibernation trances before, but she had also told him that she hadn't perfected the technique yet. Han could never tell the difference between her in a trance, and her dead.

His tauntaun let out a low, pitiful bellow. But Han was indifferent, too focused on shaking Leia urgently.

"Leia!" he cried. "Leia! Don't do this, Leia, you're too stubborn to die without a fight. Come on, give me a sign here." Leia doesn't respond, her head flopping over the crook of Han's elbow.

The captain began frantically rubbing and slapping Leia's unconscious face. As he started to lift her, he heard a rasping sound behind him. He turned, just in time to see his tauntaun stagger and then fall over into the snow. Cradling her as tightly as he could, Han carried Leia to the moaning beast. They arrived as, with a final groan, the tauntaun succumbed to death.

"Not much time," Han mumbled urgently to himself. He pushed Leia's inert form against the belly of the dead beast. "Hang on, Firecracker."

"Dagobah system..." Leia mumbled feverishly to herself.

Han ignored her dazed ramblings, igniting her sabre and cutting the beast from head to toe. He quickly tossed its' steaming innards into the snow, then stuffed Leia inside the carcass.

"Whew," Han groaned in disgust at the horrible odour.

"Dagobah," Leia mumbled again.

"This may smell bad, Firecracker," Han told her, ignoring her next groan of "Yoda." " ... but it will keep you warm... 'til I get the shelter built. Ooh... I thought they smelled bad on the outside!"

The wind had picked up considerably, making it difficult to move. Han removed a pack from the dead creature's back, taking out a shelter container. Grimly and stoically, he began to set up a pitiful protection against the bitter Hoth night.

* * *

Dawn was still breaking over the planet when four snub-nosed armoured snow-speeders began to race across the white landscape in search of their missing comrades.

Zev, a member of Rogue Squadron under Leia's command, was manning one of the speeders. He concentrated on the scopes ringing his cockpit. A low beep chimed from one of his monitors.

"Echo Base!" he called into the comlink. "I've got something! Not much, but it could definitely be a life form."

The pilot switched over to a new transmitter.

"This is Rogue Three," he called. "Repeat, this is Rogue Three. Captain Solo, so you copy? Commander Naberrie, do you copy? This is Rogue Three."

There was a sharp crackle of static, then a faint voice.

"Good morning," Han said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Nice of you guys to drop by."

Zev gave a broad grin and switched transmitters again. "Echo Base, this is Rogue Three. I found them. Repeat, I found them!"


	3. Evacuations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rebels ready themselves to flee Echo Base.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. BTW, I know that in canon, the Kanera baby was named 'Jacen Syndulla'. But, I wanted to have him named for his father in this one, as well as the fact that I plan to be more EU instead of Sequel Trilogy when I get that far, and I don't want to mix them up. So, Caleb Syndulla it is.**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**Evacuating Echo Base, and Saying Goodbye**

_**Echo Base, Hoth: 3 ABY** _

Leia was pale as death, with cuts littering her face and neck from the wampa's attack and the snow. But the hibernation trance, as well as Han's quick thinking, had saved her, and she was sitting up with a holo-novel in bed, Pooja reading a report beside her, when Artoo and Threepio entered.

"Mistress Leia, it's good to see you fully functional again," Threepio declared, gaining the Naberries' attention. Artoo beeped happily, making Leia smile at him (though only briefly. Her face still hurt from the injuries it had received).

"Artoo expresses his relief, also," Threepio translated, though Leia and her sister were both fluent in droid-speak.

"Thank you very much, Threepio and Artoo," Pooja told them graciously on her younger sister's behalf. Before she could continue, or Leia could say anything, Han and Chewie made their entrance, both of them freshly washed. Han had only left long enough to give a report and get checked out, but Leia had still been unconscious when he had left.

The Wookiee growled a greeting, and Han headed over to perch on the side of Leia's bed, pecking the top of her head tenderly.

"How are you feeling, Sunshine?" he asked with a grin. "You don't look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark."

"Thanks to you," she acknowledged, never one to shy away from acknowledging other people helping her or saving her outright.

"Yeah," he grinned, nodding. "That's, like, twenty saves that you owe me now, Firecracker."

"In comparison to the couple of hundred saves that you owe her," Luke inserted, entering. The circles under his eyes had deepened, and Neena was at his heels.

"Lieutenant Naberrie," Neena said apologetically, before Han could give the snarky comeback that was resting on the tip of his tongue. "General Draven wants to see you. He has a new assignment for you."

Pooja sighed and nodded as she rose to her feet. She paused, giving her little sister a small kiss on the top of Leia's head. "I'll try to come and say goodbye before I leave," she promised. "But if I can't, get well soon and remember that I love you."

"Be safe, and may the Force be with you," Leia replied softly, grabbing Pooja's wrist and pulling her into a hug. "I love you too."

The two sisters exchanged strained smiles, before Pooja and Neena left briskly. They were silent for a moment, before Han decided to distract Leia from her worry for Pooja.

"So, what's this about us all being grounded, Your Worshipfulness?" he drawled to Luke. Leia blinked, giving them an interested look.

"What's this?" she asked curiously.

Luke grimaced, raking a hand through his short brown locks. "General Rieekan is concerned about the base's security," he explained. "We can't afford to keep moving, we're running out of resources and locations that we can hide our forces in. So, only a couple of recon ships are allowed to leave the base until the energy shield is up."

Leia bit her lip, glancing down at the covers of her bed. "What about an X-Wing?" she asked in a subdued tone of voice. The others looked at her sharply.

"Why?" Han demanded. "Is this 'cause of another of those vision things?" Han was not, and would not pretend to be, an expert in the Force. But three years around the Last of the Jedi had broadened his mind, and he had learned to take Leia's visions seriously.

She nodded, looking up to meet their eyes again. "I had a vision while in my trance," she explained softly. "I have to go to a planet named Dagobah. There, I can complete my training. Become a full Knight. I can't stay in this limbo forever, I need to be a Knight."

What went unspoken was that her Master's greatest desire, save for the galaxy's freedom, was to have his last student become a Jedi Knight and restore the Order. Leia desperately wanted to fulfil his dream, and rebuild the Order that had spent its' millennia long reign protecting the galaxy. Obi-Wan had been a second father to her, and she wanted to make him, and her parents, proud of her. They had all spoken of her becoming a Jedi, and Leia wanted that so badly it almost seemed to hurt, at times.

The two exchanged glances, but they were interrupted by the sudden sound of an alarm. They all looked up sharply, automatically reaching for their weapons (that they kept on them at all times, even on base. Even Leia had her lightsabre resting on the bedside table beside her for easy access.) as an announcer began to call over the loudspeaker:  _ **"Headquarters personnel, report to command centre."**_

The voice repeated the order and Luke, Han, Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio all hurried out of the room, bidding farewell to Leia.

"We'll talk about it later," Luke called over his shoulder to Leia who was watching anxiously from her bed.

"Take it easy," Han added. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Excuse us, please," Threepio added.

* * *

Rieekan looked up grimly from a console screen as the group entered.

"Your Highness," he called to Luke. "We have a visitor."

The group hurried over to him, as Rieekan continued to explain, gesturing at the console.

"We've picked up something outside the base in zone twelve, moving east," he said.

"It's metal," a senior controller, a female Twi'lek named Alkia, added.

"Then it couldn't be one of those creatures that attacked Leia," Luke mused, leaning in to see the console better.

"It could be a speeder, one of ours," Han suggested hopefully.

The SC shook her head, her purple lekku swishing behind her from the movement. "No," she rebutted bluntly, waving at the console. "Wait – there's something very weak coming through."

Threepio stepped up to the control panel and cocked his head as he listened intently to the strange signal.

"Sirs, Madam, I am fluent in six million forms of communication," he informed them. "This signal is not used by the Alliance. It could be an Imperial code. The transmission ends in static."

"It isn't friendly, whatever it is," Han growled, scowling darkly. "Come on, Chewie, let's go and check it out."

"Send Rogues Ten and Eleven to station three-eight," Rieekan added, earning himself a quick nod of confirmation as Han and Chewie hurried for the door.

* * *

The dark probe robot moved past the smouldering ruins of station three-eight and down a ridge toward the Rebel base. It raised a large antenna from the top of its' head and began to send out a piercing signal.

The probe droid spotted Chewbacca who, not thirty feet away, had popped his head over a snow bank. Instantly, the probe robot swung around, its' deadly ray ready to fire. But before it could get a shot off, it was hit from behind by a laser bolt, and exploded into a million pieces.

"Alright, Chewie?" Han called over as he replaced his blaster in its' holster and peered intently at the smoking remains of the Imperial probe.

Chewie growled that he was fine, as Han pulled his comlink out and contacted the base.

"Afraid there's not much left," he told Luke and Rieekan bluntly. The two of them were waiting back at the base control room for his report.

"What was it?" Luke asked.

"Droid of some kind," Han shrugged, although neither of the other two Rebels could see his gesture. "I didn't hit it that hard. It must have had a self-destruct."

"An Imperial probe droid," Luke stated grimly.

"t's a good bet that the Empire knows where we are," Han agreed with a frustrated look on his face as he nodded.

"We'd better start the evacuation," Rieekan sighed. Han knew that the general's shoulders would be slumping in tired defeat at making the decision, necessary though it was.

They  _really_ couldn't afford to keep moving so much. Evacuations always meant that food and medical supplies, things that they desperately needed, were left behind in order to get the people away faster. At least they had fore-warning this time. Hopefully they would be able to take advantage of the extra time in order to bring most of their supplies with them.

* * *

_**Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Executor, Imperial Space** _

Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, larger and more frightening and armed than any of the five other Imperial Star Destroyers that surrounded it, sat in the vastness of space. The six huge ships were surrounded by a convoy of smaller spacecraft, ranging from fighters to freighters. TIE fighters darted to and fro from one ship to another in a practised formation.

On the main control deck, controllers were working on the vast and complex array of electronic controls. They all pause when they all heard the ominous sound of approaching footsteps and looked up from their controls to see who had arrived to disturb their work. (Not that any of them would ever dare to say such a thing to one of their superiors. That was a quick, and usually painful, way to commit suicide.)

The squat, evil-looking Admiral Ozzel and the young, powerfully built General Veers, who had been conferring quietly with each other near the front of the bridge, also felt the approaching presence and turned towards it.

Darth Vader, Lord and Apprentice of the Sith, entered like a chill wind. As Vader moved across the wide bridge, his black cloak flapping around his ankles, Firmus Piett, the first officer of the  _Executor_ , hurried up to Ozzel.

"Admiral," the captain said giving a brisk salute to his superior. His contempt for the Admiral was kept well-hidden, though some flickered through his eyes.

"Yes, Captain?" Ozzel raised an eyebrow in a silent demand for a report.

"I think we've got something, sir," Piett announced. "The report is only a fragment, but-"

"We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy!" Ozzel snapped irritably. "I want  _proof_ , not leads!"

"The visuals indicate life readings," Piett pressed on stubbornly. Ozzel sneered at him condescendingly, making Piett clench his jaw to avoid insulting his superior officer.

"It could mean anything," Ozzel said. "If we followed every lead..."

"But, sir, the Hoth system is supposed to be devoid of human forms," Piett insisted.

Vader moved to a large screen showing an image of the Rebel snow base. Rebel speeders could be seen approaching the base in the distance.

"You found something?" the Sith asked, his mechanical voice sending shivers of fear up everyone's spines.

Piett and nodded, his manner far more subservient than it had been with Ozzel. "Yes, my lord," he confirmed.

Vader continued studying the image on the console screen for a moment before nodding firmly. "That's it," he declared, jabbing a finger at the screen. "The Rebels are there."

"My lord, there are so many uncharted settlements," Ozzel protested. "It could be smugglers, it could be..."

Vader cut him off, turning sharply on his heel. "That is the system. And I'm sure that Naberrie is with them. Set your course for the Hoth system. General Veers, prepare your men."

* * *

_**Echo Base, Hoth** _

General Hera Syndulla issued instructions to two of men at the entrance to the main transport bay. Several Rebel transports behind them were being loaded by men carrying heavy boxes and moving quickly, but not in panic. This was a familiar procedure, and they all knew what to do.

"Groups seven and ten will stay behind to fly the speeders," General Syndulla ordered. "As soon as each transport is loaded, evacuation control will give clearance for immediate launch."

The fighters nodded in confirmation. "Right, ma'am," they agreed.

Hera nodded back before turning to hurry off. She needed to get Caleb packed up and into his assigned evacuation ship.

The Ghost was still too well known for her to risk bringing him with her. Instead, she would entrust her son to Sabine, her adopted daughter, while she, Zeb and Chopper flew in the Ghost. She tried not to feel like she was abandoning her son. He had never been on one planet for more than a few months at a time, before.

Perhaps it was time to consider her father's offer, and send him to live with her clan on Ryloth. Narrowly avoiding banging into a pair of pilots hefting a crate of supplies, Hera shook the thoughts away. Now was not the time for that. Now was the time to focus on the matter at hand. As usual.  _"Have you ever thought about what you'll do when the war is over?"_ Kanan's voice echoed in her mind. She suppressed the grief that rose automatically whenever she thought of her lost love and adopted son with the ease of practice. Caleb. She needed to get Caleb away to safety. That was the most important thing.

* * *

Alarms sounded loudly throughout the base. Troops, ground crews, and droids rushed to their alert stations. Armoured snowspeeders were lined up in attack formation near the main entrance to the hanger.

In the midst of all this chaotic activity, Han was doing some frantic welding on the lifters of the  _Millennium Falcon_. He finished his work and hopped down to the hangar floor.

"Okay, that's it," he said to Chewie through his comlink, all the while eyeing problematic lifters. "Try it... off! Turn it off! Turn it off! Off!" Smoke rose from a minor explosion on the lifter. Exasperated, Han surveyed the new damage. This, he concluded silently to himself. Was not good.

Leia dressed herself quickly or the evacuation as her attending medical droid stands by. This was one of hundreds of evacs she had gone through, and she was unconcerned about it, as the Force was not too upset. No more than was typical for an evac, anyway.

"Madam, it will take us quite a while to evacuate the T-forty-sevens," her med droid informed her.

"Well, forget the heavy equipment," Leia replied, shrugging on her navy top and beginning to lace it up at the front. "There's plenty of time to get the smaller modules on the transports."

"Take care, Madam," the droid responded.

"Thanks," Leia tossed back as she left the med centre and headed for the main hanger.

Pilots, gunners, and R2 units were scurrying about. Leia pulled on her heavy-weather jacket as she headed toward a row of armoured speeders.

She stopped at the rear of the  _Millennium Falcon_ , where Han and Chewie were trying to repair the right lifter with even more haste than before.

"Chewie, take care of yourself, okay?" she instructed her friend. As she patted Chewie on the arm, he put his arms around her and gives her a tight hug. Han was discussing the lifter with a repair droid when he spotted Leia.

"Hi, Firecracker," he called out distractedly, before turning back to the droid. "There's got to be a reason for it. Check it at the other end. Wait a second." He returned his attention to Leia, jumping down and pulling her close to him. "You all right?"

"Yeah," she answered, pulling him into a passion filled kiss.

"Be careful," he told her seriously, after they had separated once again.

He wasn't one of those guys who tried to protect his girl from the world. It simply wasn't possible, and Han could admit, if only to himself, that Leia way outstripped him when it came to, well pretty much everything. She had been fighting the Empire for years, and he would never insult her capabilities by trying to hold her back. He trusted her to come back to him, which was something he had never expected.

Especially not after how Qi'ra had broken his heart. But, then, Leia and Qi'ra were so different, both physically and emotionally, it was hard to believe that they were both part of the same species.

She smiled up at him, appreciating his ability to say so much with so little words. "Always," she promised. She kissed him again, quicker this time. "I'm going to Dagobah," she revealed softly. "To follow my vision. I'll see you at the rendezvous point, three months from now, all goes well."

"It will," he replied confidently. He smirked at her raised eyebrow, waiting for his punchline. "Hey, Sunshine, it's us," he said cockily, making her snort in amusement. "We're too damn awesome to die. The universe would collapse in horror."

"Someone sure has a high opinion of himself," she teased. Her grin softened, and she kissed him a third, and final, time. "May the Force be with you," she whispered to him. "I love you."

"And with you," he answered. "I love you too." They were quiet when they spoke their love, but both of them were too familiar with the way someone could be suddenly ripped away without warning to not say anything else. They had sworn to each other that they would always say 'I love you', and never separate while angry with the other. They didn't want any regrets.

Leia pulled away, heading for her beloved X-Wing, as she began to climb in, she paused on the ladder and met Han's gaze. Silently, they repeated their declarations of love, and wishes for the other's safety, before she swung herself in and slammed the ship door shut.

* * *

In the control room, a controller gestured urgently for General Rieekan to come over and check a computer scan.

"General, there's a fleet of Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace in sector four," the controller announced breathlessly, his typically-dark skin as pale as the Hoth snow.

"Reroute all power to the energy shield," Rieekan ordered hurriedly. "We've got to hold them till all transports are away. Prepare for ground assault." The orders given, Rieekan exited the room hastily, dread and fear warring for dominance in his heart.


	4. Battle of Hoth: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title says it all. First part of the Battle of Hoth/Echo Base.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Thanks for all the lovely reviews/kudos/etc. I was originally planning for the Battle of Hoth to be one chapter, but it got too long. So, you all get a double posting, in one day. Yay! Enjoy.**

**Chapter Four**

**The Battle of Hoth: Part One**

_**The Executor** _

The dark cubicle was illuminated by a single shaft of light that fell directly down onto the brooding Dark Lord as he sat stiffly on a raised meditation cube.

Obi-Wan Kenobi had preferred a relaxed, lotus position for his meditation, and of his four apprentices, the three younger ones had all chosen that form as well. It was a position that better let you surrender easier to the movements of the Force.

Vader, however, had always sat stiffly and rigidly, refusing to allow himself to relax and fall into the Force. To let the Force guide his actions. Instead, he looked through his plans, manipulating the energy field to his will.  _He_ controlled the  _Force_. Not like the foolish Jedi, who's trust in the Force had ultimately led to their bloody downfall.

Hiding his nerves, General Veers entered the room and approached the silent, unmoving Vader. Although he put on a façade of being very sure of himself, Veers was still not bold enough (or rather, stupid enough) to interrupt the meditating lord.

The younger general stood quietly at attention until the evil presence spoke abruptly, making him jolt slightly.

"What is it, General?" Vader growled out, displeased at having been interrupted.

"My lord, the fleet has moves out of light-speed," Veers reported in a submissive tone. "Com-Scan has detected an energy field protecting an area around the sixth planet of the Hoth system. The field is strong enough to deflect any bombardment."

The air seemed to turn as cold as Hoth itself from Vader's fury. Veers gulped in fear at the sight of Vader's fury. "The Rebels are alerted to our presence!" the Sith spat. "Admiral Ozzel came out of light-speed too close to the system."

"He felt that surprise was wiser..." Veers defended weakly. His voice trailed off, the air seeming to grow thin, and Vader interrupted him harshly.

"He is as clumsy as he is stupid. General, prepare your troops for a surface attack."

"Yes, my lord." Veers salutes before he turned smartly and marched out of the chamber.

Meanwhile, Vader activated a large viewscreen showing the bridge of his mighty ship. Admiral Ozzel appeared on the viewscreen, standing in front of Captain Piett.

"Lord Vader," Admiral Ozzel greeted his superior with a brisk nod, unaware of what was about to happen. "The fleet has moved out of light-speed, and we're preparing to... Aaagh!"

Vader had raised his black-gloved hand and squeezed his fist tightly. He stared coldly at the Admiral as Ozzel clutched desperately at his throat, gasping futilely for breath.

"You have failed me for the last time, Admiral," Vader declared. "Captain Piett."

Piett stepped forward, hoping desperately that he too was not about to die at the Sith Lord's hands. "Yes, my lord," he bowed deeply.

"Make ready to land out troops beyond the energy shield and deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off that system," Vader ordered. "You are in command now, Admiral Piett."

"Thank you, Lord Vader." Piett's pleasure about his unexpected promotion was not an unmixed emotion. He glanced warily at the struggling Admiral Ozzel who, with a final choke, stumbled and fell in a lifeless heap before him. No, his promotion could go very wrong, very quickly.

* * *

_**Hoth, Echo Base Command Centre** _

"All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance," Prince Luke ordered. His tone was rushed and full of urgency. Neena glanced at him worriedly, her own face pinched with stress. "The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. There are only going to be two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports."

"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, a member of the Rogues from Ralltiir, demanded incredulously.

Luke didn't want to meet any of their gazes, knowing that he was essentially sending them all to their deaths, but he did. He wanted to remember their faces. They were good people, dedicated to the Alliance and freeing the galaxy from the tyranny of the Empire. They knew what they were signing up for, when they joined. They would all go willingly, and bravely, to grant the rest of the Alliance time to escape.

"The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path," Luke explained. "When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood?"

"Right. Okay," the pilots all agreed in unison. They all bore expressions of grim determination to fulfil their assigned missions.

"Good luck," Luke told them. Neena reached back to brush his hand in a subtle motion of comfort as Derlin took over.

"Okay. Everyone get to your stations. Let's go!" The pilots hurried away. Luke watched them for a moment, his face stony, before he turned away. There was still a lot to do, and very little time to do it in.

* * *

_**Hoth, Snow Trench** _

The snow was deceptively beautiful from the light of Hoth's cold sun as the Rebel troops shoved Mobile Proton Torpedo Launcher-2a—also called the MPTL-2a into position them along the snow trench. The soldiers hurriedly responded to their officers' yelled orders and braced themselves against the rhythmic gusts of the bitterly-cold wind. Other troops loaded power packs into a gun turret and swung its' guns into a firing position.

The ice plain had a similar scene going on. Near the base power generators, troops rushed to set up their heavy battle equipment. The buzzing of the generators, combined with the sparking fingers of energy they released into the bitter Hoth wind, only made everybody more tense.

The support staff, and the families of the rebels, were bustled onto their assigned ships. Little Caleb Syndulla bravely held back his tears as he said goodbye to his mother.

Hera's own green eyes sparkled with pain as she pressed a loving kiss to her son's forehead. Not for the first time, she thought of how similar he was to Kanan in looks. Then she briefly wondered what Ezra had looked like, when he was Caleb's age. Had he too had the look of achild years older than his age, or was he full of innocent curiosity, shielded from the Empire by his parents? Finally, she pushed thoughts of her lost family away, and hugged her son tightly.

"I love you," she whispered into his green hair. He sniffled and hugged her back tightly.

"Love you too, Mama," the almost four-year-old replied. "Blast tha karabast Imps, kay?"

"Where did you hear that word?" Hera demanded in surprise. Then she huffed and shook her head at the question. "Zeb," she sighed. She smiled at him, unable to be upset. He lived on a military base, after all. What did she expect? Besides, she approved of her son hating the Empire. It was something she encouraged heavily, despite Kanan's warnings of Force-sensitives and the Dark Side. "Of course I will," she promised him. "Be good for Sabine and Uncle Rex, okay?"

"Yes Mama," he nodded. Feeling her heart break, Hera stood and handed her son over to the waiting Clone Trooper. Rex propped Caleb on his hip, giving her a solemn nod, silently promising that he would keep the young hybrid safe. At his side, Sabine gave Hera a strained smile, one hand resting on the blaster hanging from her belt.

Hera turned and walked away, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood when she heard the sound of her baby starting to cry. But she didn't turn back, because the Rebellion needed her. And Caleb would never be safe as long as the Sith ruled. She had to free the galaxy, so her son could live a long life of happiness. Even if it hurt in the short-term. It was all for Caleb, and Kanan and Ezra.

* * *

_**Hoth, Echo Base Command Centre** _

Inside the command centre the long line of Rebel controllers was tense, as were Prince Luke and General Rieekan, though everyone was trying very hard not to show any fear.

"Their primary target will be the power generators," Rieekan said, his tone blank. "Prepare to open the shield."

Neena, who was now sitting at one of the consoles and acting as a controller, gave a curt nod. "Yes Sir."

Outside on the ice plain, the first Rebel transport and two escort fighters began their departure from the ice planet.

* * *

_**Space, Imperial Star Destroyer Ultimatum** _

An Imperial controller approached his commander.

"Sir, Rebel ships are coming into our sector," she announced.

The Captain, Rae Sloane, smirked viciously. "Good," she purred. "Our first catch of the day."

Sloane was dedicated to the Empire. Even more importantly, she was dedicated to power, and gaining it. She had clawed her way up the ladder, foling an assassination attempt on the Emperor and Lord Vader himself as a mere cadet. That action had led to her becoming one of the youngest Star Destroyer captains in the Empire during the Gorse Crisis.

But she wanted an Admiral's hat, and everyone knew that quickest way up the ladder was to succeed under Lord Vader's command. Even more, the way to that was to present him with as many dead rebels as possible.

She smirked in cruel anticipation of the battle to come.

* * *

_**Hoth, Main Hanger** _

"Stand by, ion control," Neena ordered. She waited for a second before adding. "Fire!"

Outside of the Rebel's ice cave, the giant ball-shaped ion cannon rotated into position and blasted two red energy beams skyward.

The Rebel transport and its' escort raced away from the white planet, closely followed by the two red energy beams. As the Rebel transport raced towards the waiting Imperial Star Destroyer, it was overtaken by the two scarlet energy bolts.

The Imperial Star Destroyer was hit in the conning tower by the powerful bolts, setting up several fiery explosions on its' metal hull.

The large craft veered, then began to spin wildly out of control. As the Imperial ship careered into deep space, the Rebel transport raced away to the safety of hyperspace.

Inside the main hanger deck, pilots, gunners, and troopers all hurried to their stations and their vehicles.

"The first transport is away!" Neena announced over the loudspeaker. Everyone cheered at the announcement, which echoed through the hanger. Hera, who was helping pile a few extra boxes onto the Ghost, slumped in relief. Caleb, Sabine and Rex had all been aboard that transport, and she had been literally shaking with fear for them. Zeb rested a paw on her shoulder, and she cast him an exhausted smile.

Leia was at her snowspeeder, and she too let out a cheer at the announcement. Her gunner, Dack, arrived. He was a fresh faced, eager kid. Loads of potential, enough that Leia had agreed for him to join her Rogues, which took only the best, but no practical experience. yet to see any battles, or the true cruelty of the Empire, and had joined mostly due to stories of the glories of war. Well, he would soon be disabused of any such notions when the battle began.

He beamed at Leia as they climbed in, glad to see that she was back to full health. Leia began going over the controls automatically even as she strapped in. Doing so was second-nature at this point, and brought back memories of both her father teaching her to fly, and going on missions with her flight-hating Master. The memories warmed her heart, even as they pained her.

"Feeling all right, ma'am?" Dack asked cheerfully.

"Just like new, Dack," she replied. "How about you?"

"Right now I feel I could take on the whole Empire myself," he answered brightly, pumping the air with his fist.

Leia didn't say anything else, her lips twisting themselves into an experienced grimace.

* * *

_**Hoth, Snow Trench** _

In the snow trench, a Rebel officer lifted a pair of electrobinoculars to his eyes. Through the lens he could see a very close view of a giant Imperial snow walker. He adjusted the view, making it zooms back to reveal three more of the ominous battle machines. Small flashes of yellow fire billowed from the guns of the lumbering snow walkers.

The officer lowered his binoculars as the regular rhythmic pounding began to make the ground vibrate. The pounding grew louder and was accompanied by a high-pitched, metallic rattling. The officer raised his comlink. He was grim, but resigned as he made his report to the council.

"Echo Station Three-T-Eight. We have spotted Imperial walkers!"

"Imperial walkers on the north ridge," Neena confirmed.

That done, the trench officers all scrambled into position. They braced themselves against the shaking ground, and aimed their heavy guns at the approaching enemies. They would go down, but they would go down fighting.

"Echo station Five-Seven," Leia said through the comlink. "We're on our way."

The fleet of snowspeeders raced above the ice field at full throttle. They accelerated away from the base and headed straight towards the distant walkers.

"All right, guys, keep tight now," Leia ordered her men, gaze fixed on the walkers.

"Leia, I have no approach vector," Dack reported nervously. Now that things had gone from being a young boy's foolish imaginings to reality, he was beginning to panic. "I'm not set."

"Steady, Dack," Leia insisted. "Attack pattern delta. Go now!"

The cannons mounted on the head of the walker fired at the speeders. Other walkers loomed ominously in the background. Two speeders raced past two of the enormous walkers and banked to the right.

"All right, I'm coming in," Leia said as she turned her speeder and headed directly at one of the walkers, flying towards its' towering legs. The horizon twisted as the speeder banked between the legs. "Hobbie, you still with me?" she asked into her comlink. He gave a distracted confirmation, focused on flying and avoiding the enemies' attacks.

Two speeders raced directly at the head of a walker, then split and flew past it. Three other walkers marched onward, firing all cannons.

The Rebel troops fired on the approaching walkers, as the snow and ice exploded all around them. A speeder banked through and away from the legs of a walker. Two other speeders passed the first speeder from the opposite direction. Other Rebel crafts raced just above the icy plain. A giant walker head swivelled and fired, striking a snowspeeder and sending it crashing in a ball of flames. It was complete and utter chaos.

In the cockpit of an Imperial Walker, General Veers and two walker pilots kept a careful eye on the racing Rebel snowspeeders as they maneuvered their lumbering war machine forward. Leia's speeder banked in from the side of Veers' walker and headed straight for its' viewport, blasting furiously. An explosion hit the walker window, but dissipated, doing no damage to her great disappointment. The speeder roared up and over the impregnable war machine.

Leia looked back at the walker as it grew smaller in the distance. Her face was calm, as she used meditation to keep from growing frustrated and ruining her ability to think clearly.

"That armour's too strong for blasters," she said. On the horizon, another walker moved up past her cockpit window, twisting out of sight as she banked and started another run.

"Rogue Group, use your harpoons and tow cables," she ordered her men. "Go for the legs. It might be our only chance of stopping them." She turned to Dack, who had gone from terrified to resigned and was coldly calm beside her.

"All right, stand by, Dack."

"Leia, we've got a malfunction in fire control," he reported. "I'll have to cut in the auxiliary."

"Just hang on. Hang on, Dack. Get ready to fire that tow cable."

Barely keeping his seat in the tumbling ship, Dack struggled to set up his harpoon gun. Leia swung her speeder around and headed towards an oncoming walker. Laser bolts and flak filled the air, creating a deadly obstacle course for the tiny craft. But Leia was the best pilot in the Rebellion and she held her own as she and another snowspeeder flew in tight formation toward the walker with explosions bursting all around them.

After sustaining a heavy volley of fire, Leia turned around to see if Dack was all right.

"Dack? Dack!"

The young man didn't reply. Blood streamed down his forehead, which was resting on his smouldering controls. His eyes stared blankly. Leia's heart broke at the loss of yet another man under her command, but the Force screeched a warning, and she was forced to turn her attention away from him, back to the battle. Out the back window, an Imperial walker receded in the distance.

Two walkers lumbered towards the Rebel base as a speeder between them exploded in a ball of flames. Back in the snow trench, the ray gun was hit by a laser bolt and instantly exploded, taking its' controllers with it.

Through the cockpit window of his walker, Veers and his pilot could see the Rebel power generators in the distance. A hologram of Darth Vader appeared on a control panel screen.

"Yes, Lord Vader," Veers began speaking immediately, hoping to head off the Sith's anger at the delay. "I've reached the main power generator. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing."

"Rogue Three," Leia said tightly into her comlink.

"Copy, Rogue Leader," Wedge replied.

"Wedge, I've lost my gunner," she announced bluntly. "You'll have to make this shot. I'll cover for you. Set your harpoon. Follow me on the next pass."

"Coming around, Rogue Leader," Wedge replied.

"Steady, Rouge Three," Leia ordered.

Wedge didn't reply, but she saw his speeder race through the legs of one of the monstrous walkers, as he made his way through the lethal area.

"Activate harpoon," he ordered his gunner, Wes Janson, who nodded and reached for a firing switch to activate the harpoon. The projectile flashed out, and sped with deadly aim towards the receding legs of the walker. In an instant it had embedded itself in one of the walker's legs.

"Good shot, Janson," Wedge cheered, as their speeder raced around one of the giant walker's feet, trailing the cable behind it. Continuing around the back foot, they circled the walker around the tail end. Wedge checked his controls and banked around the front of the walker.

"One more pass," he decided.

"Coming around," Janson agreed. "Once more."

The speeder swept from the left to the right in front of the giant legs, towing the cable behind it.

"One more," Janson repeated. He made it sound a bit like a prayer.

Wedge swung the speeder between the legs of the giant walker.

"Cable out!" Janson cried urgently. "Let her go!"

"Detach cable!" Wedge yelled back.

The cable release on the back of the speeder snapped loose on the order and the cable dropped away.

"Cable detached," Janson announced as the speeder zoomed away into the distance.

The tangled legs of the enormous war machine attempted to make another step, but the cable caused it to overbalance, and the walker began to topple over. It teetered for another moment, and then crashed onto the icy ground, the impact sending snow and metal pieces flying in all directions.

In the snow trench, the troops cheered at the sight of the crashing walker. Aleksander Kallus, an Imperial defector and now the rebel officer in charge of the trench, gave a signal to his men.

"Come on!" Kallus called, lifting his Lasan bow rifle. The troops ran to the downed walker, followed by two Rebel speeders flying overhead. Just as they reached the walker, it exploded, the impact throwing some of the men onto the frozen ground. Kallus, glanced frantically around and was relieved to see that none of his men had been killed.

Back in his cockpit, Wedge let out a triumphant yell, banking his speeder away from the fallen walker.

"Whooha!" he cried joyfully into his comlink. "That got the kriffing bastard!"

Leia's expression of concentration turned into a smile. "I see it, Wedge," she responded, pride for her men leaking through to her tone. "Good work."


	5. Battle of Hoth: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second half of the Battle of Hoth/Echo Base.

**22/9/18 Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

**Chapter Five**

**The Battle of Hoth: Part Two**

_**Hoth, Echo Base Command Centre** _

Large chunks of ice tumbled into the command centre as Luke and General Rieekan monitored the computer screens.

"I don't think that we can manage to protect two transports at a time," Rieekan said grimly to his companion.

"It's risky," Luke acknowledged. "But we can't hold out much longer. We have no choice."

Knowing that the younger man was right, Rieekan sighed and turned to Neena.

"Launch patrols," he ordered. She nodded and turned to relay the command while Luke turned to an aid. "Evacuate all the remaining ground staff," he instructed him. The aid nodded and ran off to spread the word.

* * *

_**Hoth, Echo Base Main Hanger** _

Muffled explosions in the distance created widening cracks in the ice roof of the hangar. Trying to ignore the noise and falling bits of snow, as well as not to think of Leia, out in the middle of the battle, Han worked desperately on one of the  _Falcon's_  lifters while Chewie worked on one of the wings. Noticing Chewie attach a wrong part, Han's temper flared.

"No, no!" he snapped at his co-pilot. "No! This one goes  _there,_ and then  _that_ one goes over there. Right?"

Chewie growled back irritably.

In another area of the hangar, Threepio watched anxiously as Artoo was raised up into Leia's beloved X-wing fighter.

"Artoo, you take good care of Mistress Leia now, understand?" Threepio ordered, both looking and sounding distraught. "And... do take care of yourself. Oh, dear, oh, dear."

* * *

_**Hoth, Battlefield** _

Outside of the base, the fierce battle on the vast snow plains of Hoth raged on. The Imperial walkers continued their slow, steady assault on the Rebel base, firing lasers as they lumbered on towards Echo Base.

In the snow trench, Rebel troops fired large DF-9s and FD P-Towers as explosions erupted around them. A gun tower was hit by a laser bolt and exploded instantly. Another blast destroyed a P-Tower, both explosions wounding or killing the soldiers around them.

In his cockpit, General Veers studied the various readouts on his control panel. "All troops will debark for ground assault," he declared. "Prepare to target the main generator."

Meanwhile, Leia's speeder and Rogue Two flew in formation, banking from right to left and flying above the erupting battlefield. Flak burst all around them.

Leia glanced over and spotted Rogue Two on her left. Her ship shuddered as more flak exploded nearby.

"Rogue Two, are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Zev confirmed. "I'm with you, Rogue Leader."

"We'll set another harpoon," Leia told him. "I'll cover for you."

"Gotcha."

The two speeders raced across the horizon toward the giant walkers.

"Coming around," Zev warned.

"Watch that cross fire, boys," Leia replied, keeping a careful eye on the walker. Force, how she hated those things.

"Set for position three," Zev said into his comlink, before turning to his gunner. "Steady."

"Stay tight and low," Leia urged them.

Their speeders were moving together in practiced formation, when suddenly Zev's speeder was suddenly hit by a laser bolt. His ship bucked violently under the impact and the cockpit exploded in a ball of flame. Spewing smoke, the speeder hurtled toward a looming walker. Just before they collided, Rogue Two exploded in a million flaming pieces.

In her own speeder, Leia desperately worked to stay in control of her ship. Suddenly, the speeder was rocked by a huge explosion. Smoke filled the cockpit, and electrical sparks jumped around, stinging the young woman relentlessly.

Leia pressed her comlink desperately, struggling to breathe despite the smoke. "Hobbie, I've been hit!"

* * *

_**Hoth, Echo Base** _

Apart from the distant thunder of laser blasts, the corridor was strangely quiet and empty. Running footsteps echoed through the freezing hallway as Han appeared.

Cracks had appeared in some of the walls and some pipes had broken, sending hot steam billowing into the underground hallways. Han ignored it all, hurrying into the command centre. It was a complete shambles, but some people were still at their posts.

As he entered, a gigantic cave-in almost obliterated the room. Looking around, he spotted Luke, Neena and Threepio near one of the control boards.

"You all right?" Han demanded.

Luke nodded, surprised to see him. "Why are you still here?"

"I heard the command centre had been hit," Han replied flatly. Truthfully, he considered Luke a close friend, and he knew that Leia would be heartbroken if the prince died. Rieekan was gone already, having been hastily taken aboard a previous transport after some debris had knocked him unconscious. By default, Luke had ended up in command of the centre.

"You got your clearance to leave," Luke pointed out.

"Don't worry," Han answered dryly. "I'll leave. First I'm going to get you to your ship."

"Your Highness, we must take this last transport," Threepio insisted. "It's our only hope."

Luke ignored them, speaking to Neena. "Send all troops in sector twelve to the south slope to protect the fighters."

Neena nodded, tapping furiously at her console. Abruptly, a blast rocked the command centre, throwing Threepio backward into Han's arms.

"Imperial troops have entered the base!" An announcer warned them over the loudspeaker.

"We need to go!" Neena cried, her composure beginning to fracture as her eyes went wide.

Luke ignored her, turning to the head controller. "Give the evacuation code signal. And get to your transports!"

"Luke, we need to leave,  _now_!" Neena insisted. She tugged on his dirty sleeve, giving him an imploring look. He hesitated, looking around at the remaining people in the room.

"Yeah," Han agreed. "Let's get the kriff out of here before we get to experience the Imps' five-star prison cuisine. I hear it sucks."

Luke gave a reluctant nod, and the group of four began to run out of the centre. As they fled, the code signal could be heard echoing off the corridor walls.

"K-one-zero," the head controller called over the loudspeaker. "All troops disengage."

"Oh!" Threepio cried fearfully to the humans, who were quickly outstripping him. "Wait for me! Wait for me!"

* * *

_**Hoth, Snow Trench** _

"Begin retreat!" Kallus called.

There was no other option, and no point to remaining. If they didn't escape now, they were all dead. At least, that was the  _best_ -case scenario. Far better to be dead, then to be captured.

"Fall back!" another officer echoed. The troops fled from the battle, the ground exploding around them.

Kallus held his position and looked around grimly, having resolved to stay behind until the trench was empty.

The rebels were guerilla fighters. They did not do well in open warfare, as this particular battle proved. They had neither the training nor the resources to win against the awesome might of the Empire. Running and living to fight another day was their only option.

Continuing their retreat, the Rebels could see the walkers looming ever nearer, steel harbringers of doom.

* * *

_**Hoth, Battlefield** _

On the battlefield, Leia had managed to escape her ruined speeder, and was now on the ground, lost in a haze of the Force and a concussion.

She watched as a walker foot rose and moved over her. To her foggy mind, it almost seemed to be moving in slow motion. The Force whispered in her mind, telling her what she needed to do. Leia gave an absent nod, humming in acknowledgment of the Force's instructions.

As the walker passed overhead, she ran beneath the monstrous machine. As soon as she was in position, she fired her harpoon gun at the walker's underside. A thin cable followed the projectile from the gun and the magnetic head and cable attached firmly to the metal hull.

Still running under the walker, Leia attached the cable drum to her belt buckle. Soon she was pulled up by the cable and Leia was left dangling underneath the walker. The walker's giant feet continued to pound onward across the frozen snow.

Stray laser bolts whistled by the young captain as she climbed nimbly up the cable to the walker's hull, reaching a small hatch. Still hanging precariously, Leia cut the solid metal hatch with her lightsabre. She withdrew a landmine from a pocket on her cargo pants and threw it inside the Imperial machine. Quickly, she cut her cable, and Force-jumped onto the icy ground far below. As soon as she hit the ground, she took off running again. Her hair, which had come loose from its' trademark infinity-style bun, flew behind her like a banner made of gold as she sprinted away.

As Leia fled, the giant walker stopped in mid-step. A muffled explosion came from within, and then the walker's mechanical insides began to spew out of every possible opening. The machine stood still, smoking dangerously.

Meanwhile, Veers' walker continued to advance steadily towards the Rebel base. The smouldering walker that Leia had destroyed stood smoking just to the right of his path.

Inside his walker, General Veers prepared to fire on the Rebel power generators.

"Distance to power generators?" he barked out.

"One-seven, decimal two-eight," the pilot replied quickly.

Veers reached for the electrorange-finder and lined up the main generator.

"Target," Veers said coldly. "Maximum fire power."

Outside, the Rebel troops continued their desperate retreat, pushed back by the relentless Imperial assault.

* * *

_**Hoth, Echo Base** _

Inside the base, with Threepio lagging behind, Han, Neena and Luke raced through the crumbling ice corridors. Suddenly, there was an explosion. Han turned, grabbed the prince and Neena, and pulled them both to the wall as a tremendous cave-in blocked their path.

While Luke helped Neena, who had taken some debris to the shoulder, Han took out the comlink from his pocket.

"Transport, this is Solo," he said into it, his voice grim. "Better take off – I can't get to you. I'll get the prince and Corporal Celcho out on the  _Falcon_."

With Luke still supporting Neena, and Han leading the way with his blaster raised, they turned and raced down the corridor in the other direction.

"But... but... but..." Threepio stammered. "Where are you going? Uh... come back!"

Han, Luke and Neena ran toward the entrance of the main hangar where the  _Millennium Falcon_  was docked, undelayed by Neena's injury. Threepio still lagged behind, his metal joints not made for such things.

"Wait!" he called after them. "Wait for me! Wait! Stop!" The door to the hangar closed in his face. He scowled in exasperation.

"How typical," he complained. Suddenly, the door reopened. Threepio yelped in surprise as Han reached out and pulled the golden droid roughly through.

"Come on," the captain barked. Mentally, Han blamed Leia for making him so soft. He couldn't bear the thought of her sad face, if he had to tell her that the irritating protocol droid was destroyed by the Imps.

Inside the hanger, Chewie was pacing anxiously underneath the shelter of the _Millennium Falcon's_  landing gear. The giant Wookiee patted the underbelly of the beloved ship and barked a few reassuring words.

As he searched the area worriedly for his friend, something at last managed to catch his eye. Chewie let out a relieved shriek as he spotted Han, Luke and Neena running toward the ship. The Wookiee ran out into the falling ice, let out a loud howl, then ran up the ship's ramp.

The three humans ran up the ramp after him, closely followed by Threepio.

"Hurry up, goldenrod, or you're going to be a permanent resident!" Han called to the droid over his shoulder.

"Wait!" Threepio cried back. "Wait!"

A distant, huge, explosion rocked the hangar deck, making ice crash down onto the _Falcon_.

In the main hold, Han was busy flipping switches as Chewie watched a troublesome gauge. Neena was slumped in a chair, a dirty rag pressed to her bleeding shoulder, while an obviously worried Luke observed their efforts helplessly. He had no mechanical abilities, nor did he have more than a basic amount of first-aid knowledge. He could do nothing to help with either the ship, or with Neena's wound.

"How's this?" Han asked his co-pilot.

The Wookiee barked a negative reply.

"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Luke asked sarcastically.

Neena let out a weak snort, and they all cast her worried looks. Typically,she was olive-skinned, as was the usual complexion for Alderaanians, but right now Luke thought that she might be able to blend in with the Hoth snow, she was so pale. He moved to help tend her wound as best could, cutting off part of his jacket with his vibro-blade. It was something, at least.

"It might," Han said, belatedly replying to Luke's sarcasm. Threepio clanked into the hold before the prince could give another scathing retort.

"Captain Solo, Captain Solo," Threepio called. "Sir, might I suggest that you..."

Han tossed the gold robot a dangerous look.

"It can wait," Threepio muttered in a small voice, eyeing the pilot nervously.

The two men moved to the cockpit where Han flipped some more switches. Luke watched him, impatient and disbelieving.

"This useless bucket of bolts is never going to get us past that blockade," the prince snapped, hiding his panic beneath an angry exterior.

"This baby's got a few surprises left in her, Your Highness," Han retorted defiantly.

A noise caused them both to look out the cockpit window, where they spotted a squad of stormtroopers rushing into the far side of the hangar. Quickly, Han strapped himself into the pilot's seat and Luke sat down in the navigator's chair.

Outside, the stormtroopers hurriedly set up a large bazookalike weapon that neither rebel recognized. Behind them the giant hangar doors began to open slowly.

A laser gun appeared on the  _Falcon_  and swings around to aim at the Imperial troops. The stormtroopers, distracted by preparing to fire their cannon, were hit by the  _Falcon's_  fire and thrown in all directions.

A second later, Chewie rushed into the cockpit.

"Come on! Come on!" Han waved at his companions frantically. "Switch over. Let's hope we don't have a burnout."

A laser hit the window near Chewie as he settled into his chair. Letting out a loud whelp, Chewie quickly pulled back on the controls and the first stage of engine fire could be heard. Han flashed a smug grin at Luke.

"See?"

"Someday you're going to be wrong," Luke told him. "And I hope that I'm there to see it."

Han ignored him, and looked at Chewie. "Punch it!" The roar of the  _Falcon's_  main engines blasted out everything as the ice-cave wall began to rush by outside the cockpit window.

They had no idea that, seconds after they left the hanger, Darth Vader himself stalked into it.

* * *

_**Hoth, Ice Plains** _

Outside, Leia and two other pilots looked up as the  _Millennium Falcon_  raced above them, flying very close to the ground. The three pilots turned then, and continued to trudge onward towards their X-wing fighters, each going to their own ship.

Leia waved farewell, then headed toward her own fighter. Artoo, seated on his cubbyhole, chirruped an excited greeting as the young Jedi climbed into the spacecraft.

"Artoo! Get her ready for take-off," Leia ordered as she spotted Wedge in his own X-wing, also preparing for take-off.

"Good luck, Leia," her friend called to her. "See you at the rendezvous."

She smiled and nodded at him, then lowered herself into the cockpit while Artoo waited, beeping impatiently.

"Don't worry, Artoo," she soothed him. "We're going, we're going."

Leia's fighter sped away from the icy planet. Soon it had disappeared into the stars. But, unlike her companions, she did not turn towards a planet where she could receive help for her injuries and hide until the rendezvous in two months. Instead, she let the Force guide her actions, and punched in the coordinates for Dagobah.

It was time to finish her training, come hell or high water. Or even the Sith.


	6. The Falcon's Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia and Artoo arrive on Dagobah.

**D** **isclaimer: I don't own Star Wars**

**Chapter Six**

**The Fight of the Falcon**

_**The Millennium Falcon, Space** _

The  _Millennium Falcon_  sped away from Hoth, closely followed by a huge Star Destroyer and four significantly smaller TIE fighters. Its' captain was straining the old ship to its' limits, making the Falcon race toward two very bright star-sized objects.

Inside the cockpit, Chewie let out a loud howl. Han checked the viewscreen as the ship was buffeted by another attack. He was frantically moving from one set of controls to another. As far as Luke could tell, Han appeared to be doing six things at once.

"I saw them!" the pilot snapped, his voice harried. "I saw them!"

"Saw what?" Neena, who had staggered into the cockpit, her shoulder sloppily bandaged, asked worriedly.

"Star Destroyers, two of them, coming right at us," Han explained quickly. His scowl deepened as Threepio bumped his way into the cockpit.

"Sir, sir!" The protocol droid called. "Might I suggest..."

"Shut him up or shut him down!" Han ordered Luke, before he turned to Chewie. "Check the deflector shield!"

Chewie barked a reply as he readjusted an overhead switch.

"Oh, great," Han groaned. "Well, we can still outmaneuver them."

Neena leaned forward, a wicked grin forming on her soft features. "I have an idea, if you're up to showing what this girl can really do," she purred to Han.

Han grinned at her. He liked Neena. Under her music-obsessed and sweet exterior, she was completely crazy. "Oh, I'm up for anything, sweetheart," he smirked back at her.

Luke glanced between them, looking disturbed as memories of various childhood exploits, mostly plotted by Neena, popped back into his mind.

"I get the feeling that introducing you two was a really big mistake for the galaxy," he muttered dryly.

The other two were too deep in discussion to answer him, but Chewie barked in what seemed to be an agreeing tone.

* * *

_**Imperial Star Destroyer, Space** _

The Imperial officer frowned in confusion as he watched the  _Millennium Falcon_  race toward one of the oncoming Star Destroyers. Suddenly, the  _Falcon_  went into a deep dive straight down, closely followed by four TIE fighters. The underside of the Star Destroyer continued on a collision course with two other Star Destroyers. Slowly, it started to veer to the left. The two approaching Star Destroyers could be seen veering to the left.

"Take evasive action!" The officer yelled urgently, as alarms sounded all over the huge ship. The two other Star Destroyers continued to get closer, one of them moving so close to them that they made a fleeting contact with it.

Panic covered the bridge as the staff raced around like headless chickens, trying to avert disaster, and mostly just getting in the way of each other, hampering the efforts.

They were too focused on the oncoming crisis to notice as the  _Millennium Falcon_  raced away from the colliding Star Destroyers, still followed by four TIE fighters. Laser bolts sparked the pitch-black skies, as the Imperial fighters continued to pursue their quarry.

_**Millennium Falcon, Space** _

Things had calmed down a bit, but they all knew that the race wasn't over yet. Chewie barked at Han. Neena was bent over in pain, still trying to recover from the steep dive, Luke hovering worriedly over her.

As he tried to re-bandage the injury, he remembered Leia mentioning to him off-handedly that he had Force-sensitivity. He hadn't followed up on her comment, but now he wished he had. Leia knew several basic Force-healing techniques, and he could have killed to know them right now. Silently, he vowed to himself that he would press Leia about it the next time he saw her. He had no interest in becoming a Jedi, not now at least. But he wanted to learn, so that he could do more than simply order people around or hamper them during emergencies.

The ship was buffeted by laser blasts, bringing him back to reality.

"Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed," Han ordered.

"But, sir!" Threepio again tried to gain the captain's attention as the buffeting of lasers became louder and stronger.

"They're getting closer!" Luke pointed out the obvious, feeling helpless as he helped Neena strap herself into the seat tightly. She groaned slightly at the tight pressure of the belt pressing on her shoulder-wound.

"Oh yeah?" Han asked, with a gleam in his eye. He punched a button. "Watch this." Expectantly, they looked out the cockpit window. But the stars didn't turn into hyperspace the pretty blues and greens of hyperspace. Instead, they remained in position, the scene behind them unchanging and the TIE fighters getting closer and closer to them.

Han and Chewie looked at each other, concern and badly-suppressed panic flashing over both their faces. Even Chewie's worry was palpable.

"Watch what?" Luke said after a second of nothing happening save the ship shuddering from repeated blasts. Han tried again, slamming on the hyperspace button with all his strength to try and make it work. Still, nothing changed.

"I think we're in trouble," he admitted, anxiety creeping into his voice.

"If I may say so, sir," Threepio said loudly. "I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to light-speed!"

"Sithspit," Neena swore.

"We're in trouble!" Han exclaimed at the same time, horrified realization flashing over his face. They all stayed silent as the explosions became heavier.

* * *

_**Dagobah** _

While her lover and friends were frantically fleeing the Empire, and unintentionally stumbling into a large mouth they mistook for a cavern on an asteroid, Leia and Artoo were emerging just over Dagobah. Leia let out a gasp, her blue eyes widening in shock as they exited hyperspace.

Artoo beeped worriedly, and she waved at him distractedly.

"I'm okay," she promised. "I just...Woah. The Force is really strong here, Artoo. I can sense it from up here. I get why Master Yoda would come here to hide. I bet everything is steeped in the Light. No Dark Sider would ever set foot here. It would repel them completely. And his signature is probably completely masked by the planet's."

As she said that she paused, brow crinkling. A lot of uneducated people would probably assume that hiding in the Force meant appearing not to exist in it. It was not so. Well, you  _could_  do that, but it would only make you stand out more. A blank spot in the Force where a person was standing would be very obvious to a half-trained Padawan. Even Ezra had instinctively known how to hide properly, before Kanan had ever taken him as his apprentice.

What you needed to do, in order to actually hide yourself within the Force, was muffle your signature until it was the same level as a regular person's, or at most a tiny bit higher. Han, for example, was Force-sensitive enough to have heightened instincts and to be a superb fighter and pilot. But he couldn't use the Force actively. The same for Hera, she had such great piloting abilities because she had a slightly heightened sensitivity to the Force. That was a common enough thing. About seven in every ten humanoids had that level of sensitivity.

Master Yoda was in hiding, so he would doubtlessly have muffled his signature, even here on Dagobah. It was only sensible, after all. Obi-Wan had shown Leia how to hide herself in the Force when she was a mere toddler. She did so unconsciously and constantly, now. The other part of the problem was, now that she was thinking about it, she couldn't for the life of her remember Yoda's description. Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Kanan had all mentioned him many times, and she was fairly sure that he had had a funny way of speaking. And Ezra had had several visions of the old Grandmaster, though Leia never had.

But, no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember what Yoda was supposed to look like, or what species he was. Her heart sunk for a moment, before she rallied herself again at Artoo's worried beeping. The Force would guide her to the old Master. She just had to trust in It.

"It's okay, Artoo," she assured him. "I was just lost in thought. Okay, let's go then."

Artoo beeped again, making her chuckle slightly. He had been trying to convince her to turn around since she admitted that they weren't going to the rendezvous, explaining her vision to him.

"Yes, I'm sure that I want to go," she told him firmly. "This is my last chance to finish my training and become a Knight. I owe it to my Master, my Padawan-siblings, Ezra. Shavit, all the Jedi in history, to keep the Order alive. They used to talk about it so much, how Ezra and I would restore the Order, once the Empire was gone. The two of us made so many plans. I still remember them all..." She felt the familiar pang in her heart at the thought of her lost family. Force, she wished that one of them was still alive. It was so  _hard_ , being the last.

So many had died for the Jedi, Leia was determined to continue on. If she was killed fighting the Empire, so be it. But she would do all that she could to restore the Jedi Order before becoming one with the Force. Nodding to herself when Artoo didn't reply, she began pressing at the controls to let them descend onto the planet.

"I'm not picking up any cities or technology, unsurprisingly," she mentioned as they began drifting downwards. "Massive life-form readings, though. There's something alive down there..."

Artoo beeped again, this time asking a slightly worried question.

Leia smiled fondly at her droid. As far as she could tell, he hadn't had a mindwipe in years, possibly ever. As a result, he had developed an almost sentient personality. Personally, Leia loved him all the more for it. Had anyone else ever had such a loyal and brilliant droid? Surely not. R2-D2 was one of a kind, that was for sure.

"Yes, I'm sure it's perfectly safe for droids."

The X-wing continued its' flight through the twilight above the cloud-covered planet. Leia watched the clouds race by as she took her craft closer to the planet. She needed to operate her controls carefully since the cloud cover had completely obscured her vision and ruined her sensors. An unsensitive pilot would probably have crashed. An alarm buzzed in the background, as Artoo began to beep and whistle frantically. Leia, however, clung to her trademarked Jedi calm, working the controls without any signs of concern.

"I know, I know!" she said casually. "All the scopes are dead, I can't see a thing. Just hang on, I'm starting the landing cycle..."

The abrupt blast of the retrorockets was deafening, drowning out Artoo's electronic squeals. Suddenly, there was a cracking sound as if limbs were being broken off trees and then a tremendous jolt as the spacecraft stopped. Leia pulled a switch and her canopy popped open.

The mist-shrouded X-wing fighter was almost invisible in the thick fog surrounding them. Leia climbed out onto the long nose of the spacecraft as Artoo popped out of his cubbyhole on the back.

The young warrior surveyed the fog, the thick mist barely pierced by the ship's landing lights. Pretty much all that she could make out were some giant, twisted trees nearby. The whole scene gave off an ominous air, but it was countered by the feeling of the Force, welcoming her.

Artoo whistled anxiously, making Leia shake her head.

"No, Artoo, you stay put," she told him firmly. "I'll go and have a look around."

Artoo let out a short beep in answer. But, even as Leia moved along the nose, the small droid lost his balance and disappeared with a splash into the boggy lake.

"Artoo?" Leia called worriedly as she knelt and leaned over the plane looking for Artoo. But the water was still and she couldn't make out any signs of the little droid.

"Artoo!" she called again, her voice more concerned now. "Where are you?"

Finally, a small periscope broke the surface of the water and she heard a gurgly beep. The periscope started to move to shore.

Smiling in relief, Leia rose and started running along the nose of the fighter to its' tip.

"Artoo! You be more careful," she scolded her friend. When the outline of the shore was about ten meters away, she jumped off the plane into the water, scrambled up to the shore, and turned to look for Artoo again.

The periscope was still moving steadily toward shore.

"Artoo – that way!" Leia instructed him, pointing.

Suddenly, through the thick layer of fog, a dark shape appeared, moving toward the little droid. The dark, sinuous bog beast dived beneath the swampy water, making a loud clunk against Artoo's metal hull. The droid disappeared from sight, uttering a pathetic electronic scream.

Holding her ignited lightsabre out in a Djem So position, Leia waded a few feet into the murky pool, looking for any sign of her little friend.

"Artoo!" she repeated his name anxiously.

To her dismay, the black surface stayed as still as death itself... until a few bubbles begin to appear. Then, with a loud splash, the runt-size robot was spit out of the water, making a graceful arc in the air, and finally came crashing down into a patch of soft grey moss.

"Oh, no!" Leia gasped in dismay, hurrying to his side. "Are you all right? Come on. You're lucky you don't taste very good. Anything broken?"

Leia, using the Force, helped Artoo to straighten up and began wiping the mud and roots from his round metal body. Artoo responded with feeble, soggy beeps.

"I know this might seem like a bad idea," Leia admitted. "But, I promise there's a reason. I had a vision, at least it definitely seemed like a vision. And, yes, I know that visions have never been my specialty. But I  _have_  to follow the guidance of the Force. I'm supposed to be here Artoo. I just know it."

* * *

_**Imperial Star Destroyer, the Executor, Space** _

The newly-dubbed Admiral Piett hesitated in the entryway to Vader's private cubicle. He had never been here before, and it was an intimidating sight to anyone, even an Imperial officer of his rank and experience.

After a moment spent gathering his courage, he stepped into the room and paused again at the surprising sight before him.

Darth Vader, turned away from the door, was silhouetted in the gloom on the far side of the chamber. A black, insectlike droid was attending him. Among the various apparatuses surrounding them, a respirator tube was now retracting from Vader's uncovered head. The head itself was bald with a hideous mass of ugly scar tissue covering it. Once the respirator was removed, the black droid carefully lowered the patented mask and helmet onto Vader's head.

When it was secured in place, the Dark Lord turned to face Piett.

"Yes, Admiral?" he rumbled in his raspy voice.

Piett hid his fear and fascinated disgust as he replied. "Our ships have sighted the  _Millennium Falcon_ , lord. But... it has entered an asteroid field and we cannot risk..."

"Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral," Vader interrupted sharply. "I want that ship,  _not_  excuses."

Piett bowed submissively. "Yes, lord," he agreed.


	7. People Sing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia meets a strange little creature on Dagobah.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or the song 'do you hear the people sing?' which is from Les Miserables. Neena is a musician, and I thought that it would be a good song for the rebels. I just changed a few lyrics to suit the universe better.**

**Chapter Seven**   **Do**

**You Hear the People Sing?**

_**Millennium Falcon, Space** _

Han and Chewie were busily shutting down the engine and all electronic systems while Threepio, Neena and Luke looked on worriedly.

"I'm going to shut down everything but the emergency power systems," Han explained in a tense voice, answering their unspoken question.

"Sir," Threepio began tentatively. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but... does that include shutting me down, too?"

Chewie barked "yes". But Han shook his head, to everyone's surprise. They all knew how much Han disliked the protocol droid. It was generally believed that if not for Leia's fondness for Threepio, Han would probably have stripped him for parts. And, of course, that belief was completely right.

"No," Han told him curtly. "I need you to talk to the  _Falcon_ , find out what's wrong with the hyperdrive." Suddenly, the ship lurched, causing all the loose items in the cockpit to go flying around and making Chewie howl as the humans hastily ducked the flying objects.

"Sir, it's quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable," Threepio said worriedly.

"Not entirely stable?" Han repeated. "I'm glad you're here to tell us these things. Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive."

"Oh!" Threepio threw his hands up in the air as he followed Chewbacca out of the cockpit. "Sometimes I just don't understand human behaviour. After all, I'm only trying to do my job in the most..." The sliding door closed, cutting off his indignant remarks.

Abruptly, the ship lurched again, throwing Neena across the cabin into Luke's arms. A second later, the motion stopped as suddenly as it started.

Neena pulled away from Luke, a slight flush on her olive-toned cheeks.

He coughed into his hand, releasing her with a feeling of reluctance. "Are you okay?"

"Sshh!" Han snapped over his shoulder at them, still flicking off the various systems. Luke ignored him. As good a strategist as the prince was, he was rarely involved in field missions, his status as one of the public faces of the Alliance protecting him from it. That, combined with his status as the Crown Prince of Alderaan, had given a hint of arrogance, and he was terrible when it came to following orders from anyone save a select few. Han Solo was not one of those few.

"Has your shoulder stopped bleeding?" Luke asked Neena concernedly. Her green shirt had a large dark stain, covering most of her arm. The rag she had used to staunch the bleeding was soaked in crimson blood, some droplets still falling to the floor sickeningly.

Neena nodded silently at him. "Why don't the two of us leave Han to fix the ship?" she suggested. "We're only getting in the way."

"Yes, please," Han agreed. Luke scowled at him, but acquiesced. The two left and Han slumped, wiping the back of his arm over his forehead.  _Force_ , he missed Leia.

* * *

_**Dagobah Jungle** _

The mist had dispersed a bit, but it was still a very gloomy looking swamp. Leia pulled an equipment box from the shore to the clearing where she ignited a little fusion furnace and warmed her hands before it. Once she no longer felt as if her fingers were going to fall off from the cold, she took a power cable and plugged it into Artoo's socket.

"Ready for some power?" she asked her friend brightly. She didn't feel particularly cheerful, but Leia made it her business to never show her distress. It felt like a betrayal of Obi-Wan, who had warned her so often of the dangers of giving in to negative emotions. Therefore, she did all that she could to ignore them. When she next meditated, she would work on accepting them and releasing them into the Force. "Okay. Let's see now. Put that in there. There you go."

The droid whistled his appreciation as Leia opened a container of processed food (standard issue of the Rebellion for all pilots in case they needed to make an emergency stop) and sat lotus-style before the thermal heater.

"Now all I have to do is find Master Yoda," she sighed, tapping her knee worriedly. Nervously, she looked around at the foreboding jungle. "Still... there's something familiar about this place. More than just the Force. I feel like... I don't know..."

"Feel like what?" a strange voice piped up suddenly.

Artoo screeched loudly in fear. Leia, completely caught off-guard, backflipped and found herself, lightsabre ignited and held defensively, staring down at a...troll. She realized that she was gaping inelegantly, and snapped her mouth closed. Her mother had raised her properly, and such unladylike actions would have appalled Sola and Jobal too, probably.

"We're being watched," Leia finished as she carefully lowered her weapon, before she crouched down to be closer to the troll's height as she studied him. She thought, from the voice, that the troll was a male. He was small, about the size of a human toddler, and had green skin, very weathered though she didn't know if that was natural for his species, or a result of a hard life. He had triple-clawed hands and feet, was dressed in old rags, and his eyes lacked any irises, having only ink-black pupils.

"Hello," she said gently, giving a smile. He had already shown that he spoke Basic, so she didn't need to worry about him not understanding her, at least. "I'm sorry about that. You startled me. My name is Leia Naberrie."

The troll nodded at her. "Names, names," he hummed. "Important, names are not. Make you who you are, names do not. Make one who they are, the _soul_ does.  _Actions_  do. Names do not."

Leia blinked in bemusement, trying to decipher that strange sentence. Her eyebrows raised as, with the aid of a walking stick, the tiny stranger moved over to one of the cases of supplies. He promptly, without care for her or Artoo, began to rummage around. Artoo moved to the edge of the case – standing almost eye level to the creature who was carelessly handling the supplies – and squeaked his disapproval.

Leia, meanwhile, forced herself not to become irritated by the troll's actions. She was a Jedi, and her Master had always preached tolerance. To a certain point, at any rate. Tolerating the Empire was the exact opposite of her Force-given duty. But tolerating an apparently-senile creature's antics was entirely different. She stood, and walked over to him again.

"I'm looking for someone," she told him, the small creature still intent on examining all of her things. "Master Yoda, though perhaps he has changed his name for safety's sake. Do you know where I might find him?"

"Ah, Yoda. Know Yoda, do I," the troll turned and grinned up at her. Leia smiled back at him, finding herself feeling rather fond of the little creature. He seemed a bit crazy, and Leia liked crazy people. They were far more open to listening to her preaching about the Force, instead of scorning the words she spoke as that of a foolish young girl's delusions.

"That's wonderful," she crouched down again. "Can you take me to him?"

He looked thoughtful for a few moments, before nodding. "Do so, I can," he agreed. "But first, dinner we eat! Come with me, you will. And then, show you to Yoda, I will." He showed her a lamp he was holding in a grip that made her wince. "Mine this is, or help you I will not."

Artoo beeped indignantly at that, but Leia barely batted an eyelash. It had no particular significance to her, so why would she bother.

"That seems fair," she accepted, feeling the stress that had been weighing her down since she realized that she didn't know how to find the Grandmaster disappear. She had known that the Force would help her, but the creature's agreement to help buoyed her spirits.

It could be a trap, of course. But this planet was  _so_  Light and undeveloped. Surely the Empire would avoid it like the plague?

The troll smiled, his eyes dancing mischievously. She suspected that he was playing with her a bit, but didn't protest. "Good, good," he chirruped. "Mine this is. Now, dinner we have, then help you I will."

"That sounds excellent," she agreed cheerfully.

The creature turned and began scampering away, one of her lamps clutched tightly to his chest. Leia, after a second's hesitation, levitated Artoo into the air, and began jogging after him, relieved that she had experience in all sorts of terrain. Otherwise, she would probably have ended up tripping constantly over the vines dragging everywhere on the ground.

She silently hoped the supplies wouldn't all be destroyed, but she was prepared to prioritize. The only thing that really mattered to her was Artoo, after all. Everything except her friend could be replaced, with varying levels of difficulty. But there was only one Artoo-Detoo.

* * *

_**The Millennium Falcon, Space** _

Threepio whistled and beeped a strange dialect into the control panel in front of him. The control panel whistled back a few mystifying beeps.

"Oh, where is Artoo when I need him?" Threepio moaned as Han entered the hold area and knelt on the floor near the control box.

"Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect," Threepio told the captain, his voice a whine that made Han scowl in irritation. "I believe, sir, it says that the power coupling on the negative axis has been polarized. I'm afraid you'll have to replace it."

"Well, of course I'll have to replace it," Han huffed. He passed a wire coil up to Chewie who was working near the ceiling. "Here! And Chewie..."

Chewie brought his head back through the trap door in the ceiling and whined. Han glanced back at Threepio, then whispered quietly to Chewie so only he could hear. "... I think we'd better replace the negative power coupling."

Luke was doing some basic repair work, stuff he actually  _could_  help with, when he heard the singing. He knew instantly that it was Neena. Her cover was that of a musician, and she had always loved music, even when they were children. His father had sponsored her, when she had gone to the Coruscant Academy of the Arts at fifteen. She could have become a galaxy-famous musician, had she not chosen to join the Alliance after Alderaan was destroyed.

" _Do you hear the people sing?"_ she carolled, as he wandered into the cockpit where she was keeping an eye out for any Imperials or other threats.  
 _"Singing the songs of angry men?_  
 _It is the music of the people_  
 _Who will not be slaves again!_  
 _When the beating of your heart_  
 _Echoes the beating of the drums_  
 _There is a life about to start_  
 _When tomorrow comes!"_

"That's really good," he said, making her start and turn in surprise. She grinned at him, and he saw a holo-pad opened on her lap, music notes and words scrawled on the screen.

"I've been working on a sort of anthem for the Rebellion," she confided. "And I think that I've finally managed to finish it. Do you want to hear it?"

"I'd love to," Luke agreed, feeling a warmth in his stomach as he spotted the lights catch on the caramel-highlights in her dark hair.

Neena nodded, taking a deep breath to ready herself. A tap on her holo-pad provided the melody, and then she began to sing.

" _Do you hear the people sing?_  
 _Singing the songs of angry men?_  
 _It is the music of the people_  
 _Who will not be slaves again!_  
 _When the beating of your heart_  
 _Echoes the beating of the drums_  
 _There is a life about to start_  
 _When tomorrow comes!_

_Will you join in our crusade?_   
_Who will be strong and stand with me?_   
_Somewhere beyond the barricade_   
_Is there a world you long to see?_

_Then join in the fight_   
_That will give you the right to be free!_

_Do you hear the people sing?_   
_Singing the songs of angry men?_   
_It is the music of the people_

_Who will not be slaves again!_   
_When the beating of your heart_   
_Echoes the beating of the drums_   
_There is a life about to start_   
_When tomorrow comes!_

_Will you give all you can give_   
_So that our banner may advance_   
_Some will fall and some will live_   
_Will you stand up and take your chance?_   
_The blood of the martyrs_   
_Will water all the lands!_

_Do you hear the people sing?_   
_Singing the songs of angry men?_   
_It is the music of the people_   
_Who will not be slaves again!_   
_When the beating of your heart_   
_Echoes the beating of the drums_   
_There is a life about to start_   
_When tomorrow comes._

_Do you hear the people sing_   
_Lost in the valley of the night?_   
_It is the music of a people_   
_Who are climbing to the Light._

_For the wretched of the worlds_   
_There is a flame that never dies._   
_Even the Darkest night will end_   
_And the sun will rise._

_They will live again in freedom_   
_In the Light of the Force._   
_They will walk behind the plough-share,_   
_They will put away the guns._   
_The chain will be broken_   
_And all beings will have their reward._

_Will you join in our crusade?_   
_Who will be strong and stand with me?_   
_Somewhere beyond the barricade_   
_Is there a world you long to see?_   
_Do you hear the people sing?_   
_Say, do you hear the distant drums?_   
_It is the future that they bring_   
_When tomorrow comes!_

_Will you join in our crusade?_   
_Who will be strong and stand with me?_   
_Somewhere beyond the barricade_   
_Is there a world you long to see?_   
_Do you hear the people sing?_   
_Say, do you hear the distant drums?_   
_It is the future that they bring_   
_When tomorrow comes..._   
_Tomorrow comes!"_

She finished and looked expectantly at him. Luke was shocked, unable to speak past the lump in his throat. He forced himself to swallow and clear it, allowing him to croak out, "That was amazing Neena. Did you seriously write that yourself?"

"Yes," she nodded proudly. Her expression saddened. "I started it after I heard about Alder-. About Alderaan. I wanted to make a tribute for everyone. It's long enough, and I wanted it to be perfect, so it took ages, especially seeing as I had my missions and everything to do as well. Obviously, they took priority. I was planning on asking if I could perform it on the next anniversary, on the podcast."

The Rebels had an illegal broadcast, called the Fighters of Liberty, where various members of the Alliance exposed Imperial atrocities, pointed out the (lack of) morality in various actions committed by the Empire, and urged people to fight back against the Empire's oppression. It was run by Sabine Wren, who had set it up with the late Ezra Bridger in honour of his birth parents, who had run the 'Voices of Freedom' before their arrest. Luke, Mon Mothma, and various other speakers often spoke on it. Up until his death, Obi-Wan Kenobi had spoken every year on Empire Day, speaking of the Purges and what had happened to the Jedi after wards. Now, Leia did it for him. She always looked hollow when she was done talking about her Order's merciless slaughter, and the years of hunting she had endured due to being born with Force sensitivity.

"As a member of the Council, you definitely can," Luke replied seriously, staring at her. "I bet people will come flocking to us, once they hear that."

Neena flushed and looked away. Just then, the ship heaved again, and they both grabbed at various things to keep in place.

"Well, I guess my performance depends on whether or not we survive this mess," Neena said ruefully, once the heaving had finished. They could hear Han swearing loudly from wherever he was.

Luke nodded, still staring at the other Alderaanian.  _'Don't let yourself have regrets, my love'_ he remembered his mother's advice, years and years ago.  _'Do what you must to be happy. It's not life without happiness. Only surviving.'_

If he let the war with the Empire keep him from happiness, wasn't he letting them win?

* * *

_**The Executor, Space** _

The Imperial fleet moved through the asteroid-filled void, intently seeking its' prey. Among them was the  _Executor_ , Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer.

Asteroids collided, creating a fireworks' display outside the bridge window.

Vader stood staring out the window above the control deck. Then he slowly turned toward the bridge. Before him were the hologram images of about twenty battleship commanders. One of the images, the commander of a ship that had just exploded from an asteroid hitting its' engine, was fading away quickly. Another image, in the centre and a little apart from the others, was faded and continually disrupted by static.

It was the image of Captain Needa, commander of the Star Destroyer most hotly on the tail of the  _Millennium Falcon_.

Admiral Piett and an aide stood just behind the Dark Lord, not daring to say a word to interrupt Needa's report.

"... and that, Lord Vader, was the last time they appeared in any of our scopes," Needa informed her superior, keeping her eyes down respectfully. "Considering the amount of damage we've sustained, they must have been destroyed."

"No, Captain, they're alive," Vader insisted. "I want every ship available to sweep the asteroid field until they are found."

The Imperial star captains all muttered acknowledgments of the orders before they began to fade out one by one as Vader turned to Admiral Piett.

"Lord Vader," Piett said. The admiral was blatantly scared, his face white as a sheet.

"Yes, Admiral, what is it?"

"The Emperor commands you to make contact with him," Piett barely suppressed a stutter. At least the short conversation with the ruler of the galaxy had put his new position in perspective for him. As terrifying as Vader was, the Emperor was even worse.

"Move the ship out of the asteroid field so that we can send a clear transmission," Vader replied curtly. He was less than pleased at the demand. As a foolish young Jedi, he had considered Palpatine a mentor, and his only true friend. Now he realized that Palpatine had manipulated him worse than even the Jedi. Even if it had turned out for the best, giving him the power he had craved since he was a young slave on Tattooine, it still angered him that he had been played for a fool.

But the time was coming, and soon Vader would have his revenge, and the galaxy. Underneath his mask, a cruel smirk played on his scarred lips as Piett bowed and replied obediently. "Yes, my lord."

An hour later, Vader, was alone in his chamber. A sound began to fill the room and a light began to play across Vader's black figure. He looked up and bowed quickly. It was important to keep Sidious from realizing that the Apprentice was close to making his coup.

A twelve-foot hologram of the Galactic Emperor materialized before Vader as he sank into obeisance. The Emperor's dark robes and monk's hood covered him from head to toe. Ironically, they were like a black version of the robes worn by the Jedi, back in the days of the Republic. After the Purges, the Jedi who survived had all begun wearing smuggler-esque clothes, in order to blend in better. Leia Naberrie and Ezra Bridger had never worn robes at all. Bridger had worn an orange flight-suit, while Naberrie typically wore dark jeggings, and an equally dark lace-up shirt, with a pair of black combat boots and her hair done in an infinity-style bun.

"What is thy will, my master?" Vader asked, after he had straightened again.

"There is a great disturbance in the Force," the Emperor informed his Apprentice.

His voice was deep and sent shivers up the spine of any who heard it. Had a Jedi, or any indeed, anyone who followed the Light Side of the Force, heard it, they would have recoiled in sheer horror and disgust at the Darkness that permeated the Sith's voice. However bad Vader was, Sidious' Darkness far outstripped that of his younger student. In fact, four years prior, simply hearing the Emperor's voice had been enough to send Ezra Bridger into shock.

"I have felt it," Vader confirmed.

"Leia Naberrie, the Last Padawan, is strong in the Force," Sidious observed. "And well trained. She has defeated seven Inquisitors singlehandedly, and in only three years." It had not been completely single-handedly, of course. But Sidious would never consider an unSensitive rebel relevant, even if their aid had allowed Leia Naberrie to escape the Inquisitorious so often.

Vader hid the tension he felt as he answered. "Yes, my master."

"She could destroy us," the Emperor predicted grimly.

Despite his own knowledge of the girl, Vader could not help but scoff at that. "She is just a girl," he pointed out. "Obi-Wan can no longer help her."

How could a half-trained girl, even his own daughter, possibly compare to  _him_ , the Chosen One? He had been prophesized to be the most powerful Force-sensitive alive, and he was. Not even the emperor compared to him, not in raw power at least. He was broken from his self-confident thoughts by his Master's sharp rebuke.

"The Force is strong with her, far stronger than natural for a girl with no Force-sensitivity in her lineage. I suspect there is more to her family than we know. And Kenobi trained her well. The Last Padawan must not become a Knight."

"If she could be turned, she would become a powerful ally," Vader suggested, keeping his Force-presence neutral, as if he didn't really care about whether or not the Emperor agreed with his suggestion. If he had the Emperor's approval to Turn Leia Naberrie, instead of killing her, it would make things simpler on him.

"Yes," Sidious muttered. "Yes. She would be a great asset. Can it be done?"

"She will join us or die, my master," Vader's tone was cold and harsh as he responded.

A vicious smile played at the Emperor's barely-visible lips at that, and he gave a curt nod. Understanding the silent signal, Vader knelt again. The supreme Emperor passed a hand over the crouched Sith Apprentice and faded away.


	8. Space Slugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yoda agrees to train Leia.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

**Chapter Eight**

**Jedi Acceptance and Space Slugs**

_**Dagobah** _

A heavy downpour of rain pounded through the gnarled trees. A strange baroque-like mud house sat on a moss-covered knoll on the edge of a small lagoon. The small, gnomish structure radiated a warm glow from its' thick glass windows.

The inside of the house was a very plain, but cozy dwelling. Everything was in the same small scale as the troll.

The only thing out of place in the miniature room was Leia, whose height made the four-foot ceiling seem even lower. She sat cross-legged on the floor of the living room while the creature was in an adjoining area – his little kitchen – cooking up a meal. Artoo was squeezed into the corner, staying silent and watching the creature suspiciously.

The stove was a steaming hodgepodge of pots and pans. The wizened little host scurried about chopping this, shredding that, and showering everything with various herbs and spices that Leia didn't recognize. He rushed back and forth putting platters on the table in front of Leia, who was feeling rather flustered by now.

"I'm very grateful, truly," she claimed. "But my species really can't tolerate portions this size." That wasn't really true, but Leia suffered from a shrunken stomach, like many members of the under-supplied Rebellion. And she feared to insult the small creature by not finishing her serving, and thus cause him to refuse to help her find Master Yoda.

The small troll waved her protests off. "Food is good!" he declared. "For the Jedi it is time to eat as well. Eat, eat. Hot. Good food, hm? Good, hmm?"

Moving with some difficulty in the cramped quarters, Leia sat down near the fire and serves herself from the pot. She had been anxious over how the food would taste, given the species differences, but she was pleasantly surprised.

"This is delicious," she complimented her host, who gained a smug expression. "How far away is Yoda?" she added as she took another spoonful.

Now that she was eating, she realized that she hadn't eaten since before going out to scout Hoth. Nearly a week ago. She had gone longer without food, making heavy use of various Jedi tricks, but that didn't mean that she wasn't starving. "Will it take us long to get there?"

"Not far," the creature hummed in reply. "Yoda not far. Patience. Soon you will be with him. He took a taste of the food in the pot. "Rootleaf, I cook. Why wish you become Jedi? Hm?"

"I  _am_  a Jedi," Leia corrected him. "I just haven't finished my training. But it's not a matter of  _wanting_ , it's a matter of  _having to_. There is no other course. Not for me, at any rate. The Force wants me to become a Knight, I  _ **know**_  it. And," here, her voice that had previously been full of passion, faltered and gained a sorrowful tint.

"I want to fulfil my Master's dream. He, and my Padawan-siblings, Ahsoka and Kanan, all wanted the Order to be restored more than anything. They talked about it all the time before they were killed. My friend Ezra and I always used to talk about how we would rebuild the Order once the Empire was defeated before his death. It's thousands of years of history, and defending the galaxy. I can't just let that die. And, if I don't become a Knight and defeat the Sith, then no one will. The galaxy needs the Jedi to return."

Yoda quietly observed the young girl as the words poured out of her. It seemed as if she had been holding them all in for a long time, and now she simply couldn't keep herself quiet anymore. Truthfully, he was pleased with her. When she and her brother were first born, he had feared they would follow in their father's footsteps, even as he declared the twins' the galaxy's last hope. But now he saw that his fears had been baseless.

Leia was calm, with her biological father's strength in the Force. But unlike Anakin Skywalker, she was not filled with fear and anger, and he sensed no desire to gain power in her. It was clear to Yoda, that despite her colouring, Leia was very much her mother's daughter, having Padmé's strong spirit and desire for justice and equality throughout the galaxy.

Oh, she had some fear and anger in her, mostly directed at the Empire and the Sith. But it wasn't one of her main traits, as it had been for Anakin. Yoda had sensed the anger and fear in him from the start. If only he hadn't allowed the Council to overrule him. If only they had listened to Obi-Wan when he expressed concerns over Anakin's temper, or expelled him from the Order after Zenoma Sekot. But, of course, Yoda knew better than to dwell on what ifs. Leia had to be his focus from now on.

He continued assessing her character.

Above all, Leia wanted peace. Her desire for the Republic, and the Jedi, to return, shone out of her spirit. She had suffered a great deal, and lost more. But she did not fear death like Anakin had. Instead she accepted it as a necessary part of living, taking comfort in the fact that everyone would become one with the Force in the end.

He had tested her subtly, acting in a way specifically intended to irritate her. But every time she had started to become frustrated with his antics, she had simply accepted and released it into the Force. As a proper Jedi should do with negative emotions. All in all, she lived up to the praise heaped upon her by Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's ghosts. He nodded, making his decision.

"Very well," he said, making Leia blink in bemusement. "Agree to train you, I do. My last student you will be, and Knight you, I shall. Defeat the Sith, you will."

Leia's eyes widened in realization. " _You're_  Yoda," she accused.

He nodded again. "Yes. Grandmaster Yoda of the Jedi Order, I am."

"This was all some sort of test then," she stated. "Wasn't it?"

"Indeed," Yoda admitted. "Ensure that you were worthy of inheriting the legacy of the Jedi Order, I had to."

"I understand," Leia murmured. "But, I am? You will complete my training?"

"Not the correct question is that," Yoda sighed. "Correct question is this: Will you finish what you begin?"

Leia raised her chin determinedly. "I won't fail you – I'm not afraid."

Yoda turned to her slowly. "Oh, you will be," the small Master warned. "You will be."

Leia didn't break his gaze, her expression merely growing in the more determined. In the corner, unseen by his former student, but seen by Yoda, Obi-Wan smiled proudly. Leia, he knew, would excel under Yoda's teaching. Just as she had when he was her teacher.

* * *

_**The Millennium Falcon, Space** _

The cockpit was quiet and lit only by the indicator lights on the control panel. Luke sat in the pilot's seat, running his hand across the control panel as he thought of Neena and the feelings she created within him.

Suddenly, something outside the cockpit window caught his eye. The reflection of the panel lights obscured his vision until a soft suctionlike cup attached itself to the windscreen.

Luke leaned closer to see what it was. Large, yellow eyes flashed open and stared back at him. Letting out a startled cry, he jumped back into his seat, his heart pounding in fear. There was a scurry of feet and a loud screech, and in an instant the terrifying eyes were gone.

The young prince was still for a moment as he caught his breath, before he jumped out of his chair, and raced out of the cockpit in search of his companions.

In the hold, Han, Chewie and Threepio were still working away.

The lights went bright for a second then flickered out again. Threepio and Chewbacca watched as Han finished with some wires.

"Sir, if I may venture an opinion...," Threepio began.

Han cast the droid a look full of dark promise, shutting him up quickly. "I'm not really interested in your opinion, Threepio."

Luke rushed into the cabin just as Han dropped the final floor panel into place.

"There's something out there," he announced, out of breath from running so quickly.

"Where?" Han demanded sharply, instantly worried. Anything that could survive in the depths of space was a danger. And that was if it wasn't an Imperial spy drone, or something.

"Outside, in the cave," Luke explained, his words almost tumbling over each other. As he speaks, they heard a sharp banging on the hull. Chewie looked up and barks anxiously, Neena, who had been resting in the spare bunk, came stumbling into the hold.

"What's goin' on?" she slurred, still half-asleep. There was another bang, jolting her back into full wakefulness. "What was that?"

"There it is," Threepio cried fearfully. "Listen! Listen!"

"I'm going out there," Han decided.

"Are you crazy?!" Neena and Luke chorused together.

Han glared back at them stubbornly. "I just got this bucket back together. I'm not going to let something tear it apart." He and Chewie grabbed their breath masks off a rack and hurried out, refusing to acknowledge any more protests from their friends. Huffing furiously, Luke went after them, closely followed by Neena.

"Then I'm going with you," Luke insisted.

"We both are," Neena agreed.

"I think it might be better if I stay here and guard the ship," Threepio suggested, none of the humans paying him any attention. He heard another mysterious noise and whimpered in fear. "Oh, no, oh no."

It was very dark inside the huge asteroid cave, much too dark for any of them to see what was attacking the ship. Luke stamped his foot on the floor of the cave.

"This ground sure feels strange," he commented warily. "It doesn't feel like rock at all."

"It's kinda rubbery," Neena agreed, shining her light around. "And do those walls look sort of reddish to you?"

Han knelt and studied the ground, before he tried to study the outline of the cave. Both attempts were unsuccessful, though he didn't admit that.

"There's an awful lot of moisture in here," he pointed out instead.

"I don't know," Luke said uneasily, looking around cautiously. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah," Han muttered in reply.

Chewie barked through his face mask, and pointed toward the ship's cockpit.

A five-foot-long shape could just be seen moving across the top of the  _Falcon_. The leathery creature let out a loud, shrill screech as Han and Neena both blasted it with a laser bolt at the same time.

"Watch out!" Han yelled to his companions as the black shape tumbled off the spaceship and onto the ground in front of the prince.

Han bent down to investigate the dead creature, frowning unhappily.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he sighed. "Mynock. Chewie, check the rest of the ship, make sure there aren't any more attached. They're chewing on the power cables."

"Mynocks?" Luke repeated. Neena, who had a lot of experience with space pests, grimaced in disgust.

"Go on inside," Han urged them both. "Chewie and I'll clean them off if there are any more." Just as he finished speaking, a swarm of the ugly creatures swooped down through the air at them. Neena, knowing her injury made her more of a hindrance than a help, put her arms over her head to protect herself as she ran toward the ship, with Luke at her side. But the Mynocks blocked them, keeping them separated from their goal. Chewie shooed another Mynock away with his blaster. Several more of the batlike creatures flapped their wings loudly against the cockpit window of the  _Falcon_.

Inside, Threepio shuddered at their presence. "Ohhh!" he moaned. "Go away! Go away! Beastly things. Shoo! Shoo!"

Han looked around the strange, dripping cave. "Wait a minute...," he muttered. He unholstered his blaster and fired at the far side of the huge cave. The cavern began to shake and the ground started to buckle.

Chewie barked and moved for the ship, followed closely by the three humans. The large wings of the Mynocks flapped past them as they shielded their faces and ran up the platform.

As soon as they were all on board, Chewie closed the main hatch. The ship continued to shake and heave dangerously.

"All right, Chewie, let's get out of here!" Han called. The Wookiee headed for the cockpit as Han, followed by Threepio, rushed to the hold area and began to check the scopes on the control panel. Luke and Neena hurried after him.

"The Empire is still out there," Luke protested. "I don't think it's wise to..."

Han ignored him and rushed past him, heading for the cockpit.

"No time to discuss this as a committee," the pilot interrupted. With that, he was gone. The main engines of the Falcon began to whine. The other two raced after him, bouncing around in the shaking ship.

"I am not a committee!" Luke snapped angrily. Neena placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a sympathetic grin.

"You kinda are, actually," she told him as they scrambled into the cockpit. He shot her a betrayed look, but didn't reply.

Han was already in the pilot's seat pulling back on the throttle. The cave-quake had greatly diminished, but it was still ongoing.

"You can't make the jump to lightspeed in this asteroid field," Luke insisted.

"Sit down," Han snapped curtly, focused on the controls. "We're taking off!"

Neena dragged Luke into the spare chair, perching on his lap and making him flush in embarrassment at the intimacy of the position. As the ship began to move forward, Chewie barked, noticing something out of the window ahead. Threepio had seen it too.

"Look!" the droid cried in panic, pointing urgently.

"I see it, I see it," Han replied.

Suddenly, a row of jagged white stalagmites and stalactites could be seen surrounding the entrance. And as the  _Falcon_  moved forward, the entrance to the cave seemed to grow ever smaller.

Han pulled hard on the throttle, sending his ship surging forward.

"We're doomed!" Threepio wailed.

"Oh shut up!" Neena snarled at him, at the same time as Luke announced, "The cave is collapsing."

"This is no cave," Han replied darkly.

"What?" Luke and Neena both asked in unison. Their mouths both dropped open as they stared out the window. They could now see that the rocks of the cave entrance were not rocks at all, but giant teeth, quickly closing around the tiny ship. Chewie howled.

But Han was an amazing pilot. The  _Millennium Falcon_  zoomed through the monster's mouth, rolled on its' side and just barely made it between two of the gigantic white teeth before the huge jaw slammed closed.

The enormous space slug watched as the  _Falcon_  flew out of its' mouth. The monster tilted its' head, making no move to pursue them as it watched the starship fly away.


	9. Dagobah Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia enters a Dark cave.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. I hope everyone is still enjoying this story.**

**Chapter Nine**

**The Cave of Darkness**

_**Dagobah** _

Leia was sweating heavily as she darted through the obstacle course her new Master had created for her. She had been training under Yoda for almost three weeks now, and he was giving her a test of the skills he had been drilling into her since he had started training her. It was a test on all three different aspects of the Force (or rather, the three as defined by the Jedi Order).

For Control, her task was to maintain a Force Cloak while using Force Speed to dart through the obstacles as quickly as a flash of light, and using Breath Control to hold her breath as long as possible. Obi-Wan had taught her the basics of all those techniques, so she was managing, even if she had rarely used them in combination with each other.

Her Sense tasks were to use Force Listening to hear everything little sound, from the insects fluttering around the jungle to an animal's breathing, several miles away. Using Force Smell, she was picking up dozens of different scents, and trying to catalogue them all as best she could. Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, forcing her to rely on her Force Sight to navigate the difficult terrain.

Of course, the Alter tasks were the hardest. She was struggling with it more than she wanted to admit it. Yoda was sending random attacks at her, and she was supposed to deflect them with the Force, while sending her own attacks back at him. All the while she was levitating a disgruntled Artoo alongside her and trying to avoid ever actually touching the ground, instead hovering centimetres above the ground.

Considering her difficulty with combining all the different tasks and Yoda's experience, she wasn't particularly surprised that none of her attempts were working, nor that she herself was covered in various injuries.

"Enough!" Yoda ordered abruptly, making Leia falter. Unfortunately, she stopped so suddenly that her foot caught on a tree-root and she found herself slamming into the ground with a groan. Wincing, she pushed herself back to her feet. She didn't touch the blindfold, having gotten used to it after wearing it constantly for the entirety of her training under Yoda. He wanted her to learn to rely solely on the Force, and she was managing. She did let herself 'release' her Force Smelling and Listening, while sucking in a much-appreciated gasp of air.

"Heal yourself, you will," her Master instructed. "Then, speak we will."

Leia gave a weary nod, and made her way to a nearby tree stump, which she promptly slumped onto. Usually, she would have relied more on things like bacta and doctors for fixing injuries. Obi-Wan had only known a few basic Force-healing techniques, and by default, so too did Ahsoka, Caleb, Leia and Ezra. As such, she had rarely used it.

But Yoda had mastered almost every Force technique there was in his one thousand years of life, and he considered Force Healing to be one of the most vital things for a Jedi to know, which Leia frankly agreed with. And so, she had taken long strides in it. She spent half-an-hour in the healing trance, seeking out each of her injuries and speeding up the healing of the damaged cells, before she finished and stood up again, brushing the excess dirt from her mud-stained leggings.

"Finished, are you?" Yoda asked.

"Yes, Master," she nodded, giving him the respectful curtsey-bow mix used by the women of Naboo.

"Good, remove your blindfold, you may."

Leia was shocked at that, but obeyed, pulling the worn cloth from her face. She winced at the sudden light, but thankfully Dagobah was naturally dark, and she used the Force to help speed up her readjustment to the light.

Yoda gave her a look of approval. "Good," he hummed. "Vessel of the Force are you, and rely on It you should. Trust Its' judgment above all else, you must."

"I do," Leia promised, sitting in a lotus-position in front of him. "What's my next lesson, Master?"

Because it was Yoda, he avoided the question, speaking in riddles instead. "A Jedi's strength flows from the Force," he lectured her. "But beware of the dark side. Anger... fear... aggression. The dark side of the Force are they."

"I know that already," Leia blinked in bemusement. "It was the first thing Master Obi-Wan ever taught me. I always release them into the Force, always."

Yoda gave her a stern look as he continued. "Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's former apprentice."

"Vader," Leia breathed, her eyes widening slightly. She knew very little about Vader and his Turn to the Dark. She only knew that he had been one of Obi-Wan's apprentices, led the Jedi Purges, and, before he Turned, was very close to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan both. She didn't even know his birth name. She hesitated as a treacherous thought, one she had thought several times, crept forward to the forefront her mind. "Is the dark side stronger?" she whispered.

Yoda shook his head immediately, his reply firm and unhesitating. "No... no... no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."

"But how am I to know the good side from the bad?" Leia asked. "Master Kenobi warned me so many times, but it's so easy to slip when I see someone I care about be killed."

Yoda patted her hand. "You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack."

"But tell me why..."

Yoda interrupted her. "No, no, there is no why. Nothing more will I teach you today. Clear your mind of questions. Mmm. Mmmmmm."

Leia was stubborn, however, and she pressed on. "But why does it 'forever dominate their destinies'? Why can't they return to the Light?"

"To return to the Light, desire to repent they must," Yoda explained. "And too consumed with their desire to gain more power are they to do so. And, asked another question must be."

"What?"

Yoda looked steadily at her. "Deserve forgiveness, do they?" he asked. "Uncountable sins, the Sith have committed. Deserve forgiveness does a genocide?"

Leia bit her lip and looked down. "I don't think that's our decision to make," she admitted. Yoda smiled and nodded at her.

"Correct, you are," he told her. "The decision of the Force it is, whether forgiven or not the Sith will be. For now, training for you there is to do. Follow me you will."

"Yes Master."

They left Artoo in the clearing as they headed deeper into the tangled jungle. Leia shivered, feeling, to her horror, the familiar coldness that came from the Dark, as they came to a stop in front of a twisty, blackened tree. The trunk was split open to reveal a dark cave.

"W, what is this?" she stammered softly, staring at it with wide eyes. "There's something not right here."

Yoda sat on a large root, poking his Gimer Stick into the dirt.

"I feel coldness, death. Evil," Leia continued, looking back at him for a second before continuing to stare warily at it while she clutched at her lightsabre hilt.

"That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force," Yoda said slowly. "A domain of evil it is. In you must go."

Leia swallowed and eyed it anxiously. "Why? What's in there?"

"Only what you take with you," Yoda replied calmly.

Leia looked warily between the tree and Yoda before she started to unstrap her trusty weapon belt.

"Your weapons... you will not need them," Yoda stopped her. Le gives the tree a long look, then resignedly nodded.

"I will trust the Force," she agreed grimly before she reached up to brush aside some hanging vines and entered the tree.

Leia moved into the dark cave. She could barely see, so she snapped her eyes closed and began to use her Force sensitivity to navigate. A sound drew her attention, and she spun in its' direction. The increasing feeling of Darkness forced her to open her eyes, and she froze in horror at the sight of Darth Vader, staring right at her.

It was the first time she had seen him since he had murdered her Master, and the flashback and renewed grief and hatred that suddenly hit her made her gasp. For a moment, she was back on the Death Star, Luke tugging on her arm and Obi-Wan ordering her to run through their Padawan bond as he was sliced in two by the red blade.

Then the scene changed, and she was on Malachor with her Master, Ahsoka, Kanan and Ezra. The two Inquisitors that had been stalking them for the past few months were dead through the combined efforts of herself and the rest. Now they were staring down Darth Vader and Darth Maul. Kanan was leaning heavily on Ezra, his eyes gorged out by Maul's red sabre. She herself was pressing a hand to her side, blood gushing through her fingers from the wound she had taken for Ahsoka as Obi-Wan propped her up and urged her to stay conscious.

"Run!" Ahsoka cried, her two white-glowing like lanterns in the red-tinted light of the planet. "I'll hold 'em off! Get Caleb and Leia out of here!"

Ignoring the Padawans' protests, Obi-Wan dragged them all back to their ship. Leia, her vision blackening, glanced back just in time to see Vader's red blade piercing Ahsoka's torso and her two hilts falling, unignited, to the ground.

"No!" Leia cried as she snapped out of the horrifying memories of her losses. She was lost to her grief as Vader lunged for her. Flinging out a hand, she crushed her hand into a fist, thinking only of her Master's disappearing body, and Ahsoka hanging limply from the Sith's lightsabre.

She didn't think of how Vader could possibly have gotten to Dagobah unnoticed by Yoda or her, nor did she wonder where his lightsabre was. She only thought of her lost loved ones, and everyone he had brutalized. Vader choked, gripped his throat, and disappeared.

When he was gone, Leia lowered her hand slowly, feeling her heart sink with it as she wondered what she had just done.

* * *

_**Star Destroyer Executor** _

Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer moved through space, guarded by its' convoy of TIE fighters.

Inside, Vader stood in the back of the control area of his ship's bridge with a motley group of men and creatures. The various Imperial officers occasionally looked away from their screens to sneer contemptuously at the non-humans. Prejudice was rampant in the Empire, and most people were a tad surprised that none of the visiting non-humans had been attacked by the more vicious members of the Imperial military.

Admiral Piett and two controllers stood at the front of the bridge and watched the group through narrowed eyes.

"Bounty hunters," Piett sneered. "We don't need that scum."

"Yes, sir," the first controller agreed. She had a disgusted look on her face, and Piett knew that she had three Twi'lek slaves at her home. Allowing non-humans onto the bridge of the Executor surely cut her as badly as it did him.

"Those Rebels won't escape us," Piett went on. Another controller interrupted his rant.

"Sir, we have a priority signal from the Star Destroyer Avenger," the man informed his CO.

Piett nodded curtly and straightened his jacket. "Right." He hurried over to see it.

The group standing before Vader was a bizarre array of galactic fortune hunters: Bossk, a slimy, tentacled monster with two huge, bloodshot eyes in a soft baggy face. Unknowing to everyone, he had once been an acquaintance of the late Padawan Ezra Bridger before being taken into custody by the Empire. Standing beside him were the brothers Zuckuss and Dengar, two battle-scarred, mangy human types; a battered, tarnished chrome war droid IG-88; and Boba Fett, and finally, a man in a weapon-covered armoured space suit. His helmet shielded his identity.

"... there will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the  _Millennium Falcon_ ,"Vader was saying. "You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations."

"As you wish," Boba Fett sneered.

At that moment, Admiral Piett approached Vader in a rush of excitement. "Lord Vader!" he cried. "My lord, we have them."


	10. Doubts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia doubts her ability to defeat the Sith and receives advice from her teacher.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. The next chapter will hopefully have them arrive at Bespin.**

**Chapter Ten**

**The Doubts of a Jedi**

_**Space, Millennium Falcon** _

The  _Millennium Falcon_ sped through deep space, closely followed by a firing Imperial Star Destroyer.

A large asteroid about the same size as the Falcon tumbled rapidly toward the smaller starship. The  _Falcon_ banked sharply to avoid the giant asteroid as smaller rocks pelted its' surface. Then the small craft roared under the asteroid which exploded harmlessly on the hull of the large Star Destroyer.

Inside, the ship shuddered as flak exploded near the cockpit window. Threepio checked a tracking scope on the side control panel while Luke looked tensely out of the window. Neena cleaned a blaster with rigid concentration. Everyone was antsy, after three weeks stuck in the small ship, constantly pursued by Imperials, with asteroids everywhere.

"Oh, thank goodness we're coming out of the asteroid field," Threepio cried. Chewie barked excitedly as the rain of asteroids finally began to subside. A bolt from the Star Destroyer hit the back side of the  _Falcon_  with a fiery explosion, causing it to lurch to one side.

The  _Falcon_  was hit hard by another bolt from the Star Destroyer, creating a huge explosion near the cockpit of the smaller ship. The Falcon tilted steeply, then righted itself.

Han briskly corrected the angle of his ship.

"Let's get out of here," he smirked, thoughts of reuniting with Leia at the rendezvous hovering in his mind. After several weeks separated from her, spent hiding from Imperials in an asteroid belt, he was past ready to hold her in his arms once again. He was craving her presence like he craved air. Only he had the suspicion that Leia was more vital to him than air was.

"Ready for light-speed?" he asked. "One... two... three!" Han pulled back on the hyperspace throttle and – nothing happened. Flak bursts continued to rock the ship.

"It's not fair!" Han frantically complained. Chewie, who was now furious, started to growl and bark at his friend and captain. Again, Han desperately pulled back on the throttle. Again, nothing happened, and the ship continued to shudder under the assault.

"The transfer circuits are working," Han insisted. "It's not my fault!"

Chewie put his head in his hands, whining. Neena sighed in resignation and went to peer out of the window worriedly. Luke, having almost been expecting it, asked, "No light-speed?"

"It's not my fault," the captain repeated.

"It doesn't matter if it's not your fault, Han!" Neena snarled, hungry, irritated and panicked. "Either way we're stuck in space with no lightspeed, limited supplies and Imps on our tail!"

"Sir, we just lost the main rear deflector shield," Threepio chimed in, worsening the tension. "One more direct hit on the back quarter and we're done for."

Han paused for a moment, seeing Leia's warm smile and blue eyes, always seeming to be lost in the Force, in his mind's eye, made a decision, and pulled back on a lever.

"Turn her around," he ordered. Chewie barked in puzzlement. "I said turn her around!" Han snapped. "I'm going to put all power in the front shield."

"You're going to attack them?!" Luke exclaimed incredulously.

"Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer..." Threepio began to say before Luke and Neena cut him off.

"Shut up!" they both snapped. Han ignored them all, focusing intently on his controls.

The  _Falcon_ banked, making a steep, twisting turn. In the next moment it was racing toward the Star Destroyer, looking very small when it was compared to the massive surface of the Imperial ship. As it moved across the surface of the Star Destroyer, the  _Falcon_  bobbed and weaved skilfully to avoid the heavy fire being sent at them by their enemy.

The tiny _Falcon_  headed directly for the  _Avenger_ 's bridge. The Imperials stationed there were stunned speechless to see the small spaceship racing low across the hull, headed directly at the huge windows of the bridge area. Alarms started to go off everywhere.

The  _Avenger_ 's commander, Captain Needa, could scarcely believe his eyes. Despite his shock, however, he was an Imperial veteran. And all the Imperials knew that rebels were fanatically devoted to their cause of 'liberating the galaxy'. He had seen many a rebel commit suicide in a 'if I'm going down, they're coming down with me' decision. These ones were the same.

"They're moving to attack position," Needa declared. "Shields up!" he ordered. Needa and his men ducked automatically as the  _Falcon_  neared the bridge window. At the last minute, however, the  _Falcon_  veered off and out of sight. All was quiet, in an eerie sort of way.

"Track them," Needa ordered harshly. "They may come around for another pass."

"Captain Needa, the ship is no longer appearing on our scopes," the tracking control officer informed his CO.

"They can't have disappeared," Needa scoffed. "No ship that small has a cloaking device."

"Well, there's no trace of them, sir," the tracking officer answered.

Needa cuffed harshly him around the head, angry at the disrespect, and fearful of Lord Vader's reaction if they didn't discover the fugitives.

"Captain, Lord Vader demands an update on the pursuit," the Communications Officer said, his voice verging on a whimper. Needa drew a deep breath, accepting his fate grimly.

"Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them, and apologize to Lord Vader," he announced. "Meanwhile, continue to scan the area."

"Yes, Captain Needa."

* * *

_**Dagobah Jungle** _

Leia stood in a handstand in the muddy swamp. Yoda was making every lesson excessively complicated, so that she would learn it better. That was why she was in the handstand, instead of being upright. Her face was sweaty, but it was not due to the humid temperature of the jungle planet. Instead, it was the difficulty of what she was attempting to do. Yoda's instructions echoed in her mind as she focused on the task he had given to her.

Using the innate Force energy of the object they were manipulating, a Force-sensitive could use Alter Environment to control the elements. It was one of the hardest techniques to use, because of its' many dangers. You risked losing control, and completely destroying your surroundings and everything in them. Including yourself.

On the other hand, if you mastered the power, you could conjure a tornado with the minimum amount of concentration needed. Shaak Ti had been the most recent Master of the ability.

"Use the Force," Yoda urged. "Yes..." He tapped Leia's leg. Quickly, she lifted one hand from the ground. She maintained her balance with ease. Artoo, standing nearby to watch, was whistling and beeping frantically.

"Now... the lightning. Feel it."

Leia concentrated on trying to feel the energy in the sky. She began to gather it, and they could hear the air thicken in the way that it did when a storm was coming. But then, distracted by Artoo's frantic beeping, Leia lost her concentration and finally collapsed. The air went back to normal and Yoda jumped clear.

"Concentrate!" the small green troll instructed her, whacking her sharply on the shins with his gimmer stick.

Trying to release her annoyance at the disturbance, Leia looked over at Artoo, who was rocking urgently back and forth in front of her. Artoo waddled closer to the young Jedi, chirping wildly, then scooted over the edge of the swamp.

Catching on, Leia rushed to the water's edge. The X-wing fighter had sunk, and only the tip of its' nose was showing above the lake's surface.

"Oh, no," Leia groaned. "We're never going to get it out now."

Yoda stamps his foot in irritation. "So certain are you. Know you nothing of the Force? Lifted your droid repeatedly, have you not?"

Leia looked uncertainly out at the ship. "Master, moving stones and Artoo around is one thing. This is totally different. The ship-"

"No!" he interrupted. "No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned."

Leia bit her lip.  _'You can do it, Leia'_ her M- her first Master's voice whispered in her mind. _'Have faith in yourself, as I have in you.'_

She focused, saying quietly, "All right, I'll give it a try." She winced a second after the words left her mouth, remembering Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Kanan's mutual favourite phrase, that they had learned from Yoda himself. It had driven her and Ezra mad with frustration and she mouthed it along with him as Yoda hit her with his cane again, snapping out the annoying phrase.

"No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."

Leia closed her eyes and concentrated on lifting the ship out of the swamp. Slowly, the X-wing's nose began to rise above the water. It hovered for a moment before it then slid back under, disappearing once again.

Leia was panting heavily as she shook her head. "I can't. It's too big." She had lifted large chunks of debris before, but nothing so heavy as a ship. For all that both Yoda and Obi-Wan's memory insisted that there was no difference between a pebble and a building in the Force, her logic was telling her she was going to fail.

"Size matters not," Yoda insisted. "Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm."

Leia shook her head immediately.

"And as well you should not," Yoda agreed. "For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its' energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we..." Yoda pinched Leia's shoulder as he spoke. "... not this crude matter." He made a sweeping gesture. "You must feel the Force around you." He gestured between them. "Here, between you... me... the tree... the rock... everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship!"

"You want the impossible," Leia huffed. Quietly Yoda turned towards the X-wing fighter. With his eyes closed and his head bowed, he raised his arm and pointed at the ship. Soon, the fighter rose above the water and moved forward as Artoo beeped in terror and scooted frantically away. The entire X-wing moved majestically and surely, towards the shore. Yoda stood on a tree root and guides the fighter carefully down toward the beach.

That done, he turned back to the wide-eyed Leia. "About the X-Wing, this is not," he declared. Leia's eyes went wide, and she glanced away, crossing her arms protectively under her breast.

"Think you do that worthy to restore the Jedi Order, you are," he continued. Leia stiffened, keeping her head turned away from him. Yoda waited patiently until she finally looked back at him, her expression far too troubled for her age.

"It was supposed to be Ezra and I doing it together," Leia whispered. With the constant fights she had been for years, this was the first time since she joined the Alliance properly that she had ever had the time to actually feel her grief over her losses. Every night she was plagued with nightmares of her family and friends and comrades' deaths, and she was struggling to release it.

"And I thought I had a decent knowledge of the Force, but in the past few weeks." She waved her hand distantly. "I don't know what to do. How am I supposed to defeat Sidious and Vader, if you and Master Obi-Wan couldn't do it?"

"Let the Force guide you, you must," Yoda replied, softly but firmly.

Leia didn't reply.

* * *

_**Space, Star Destroyer Executor** _

"Apology accepted, Captain Needa," Vader rumbled, finally releasing his clenched fist.

Clutching desperately at his throat, Captain Needa slumped down, then fell over onto his back, at the feet of the merciless Sith. His eyes were at half-mast, and his chest was still.

With the ease of practice, two stormtroopers picked up the lifeless body and carried it quickly away as Admiral Piett and two of his captains hurried up to the Dark Lord.

"Lord Vader, our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing," Piett reported warily. "If the  _Millennium Falcon_  went into lightspeed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now."

"Alert all commands," Vader barked in answer. "Calculate every possible destination along their last know trajectory."

Piett bowed deeply, sighing subtly in relief that he had escaped the Sith's wrath. "Yes, my lord. We'll find them."

"Don't fail me again, Admiral," Vader warned the other man before he exited the bridge, his cloak swooping after him dramatically. As he stalked away, the admiral turned to an aide, a little more uneasy than when he arrived.

"Alert all commands," Piett instructed the terrified aide. "Deploy the fleet."


	11. Bespin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia has a vision of her friends, and rushes to get to them.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Arrival in the City of Clouds**

_**The Millennium Falcon, Space** _

"Captain Solo, this time you have gone too far," Threepio insisted as the group watched the Imperial Star Destroyer begin to leave. Chewie growled at him irritably, making the golden droid cross his arms stubbornly.

"No, I will not be quiet, Chewbacca. Why doesn't anyone listen to me?"

Han turned to Chewie. "The fleet is beginning to break up," he said, ignoring Threepio. "Go back and stand by the manual release for the landing claw."

Chewie barked, struggled out of his seat, and climbed out of the cabin.

"I really don't see how that's going to help," Threepio continued to complain. "Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances. The Empire may be gracious enough..."

Spotting Neena reaching for a nearby blaster in order to shoot Threepio at the mention of surrendering, Luke leaned over and shut him off, stopping his flow of words in mid-sentence.

"Thank you," Han exhaled.

"I'm gonna sell that damn thing if it suggests surrendering to the Imps again," Neena threatened, scowling bitterly at the droid. The others didn't blame her, as they were all fed up of being stuck in the small ship, hearing Threepio advocating giving in to the Empire.

Luke ignored her, looking at Han. "What did you have in mind for your next move?"

"Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they'll dump their garbage before they go to light-speed, then we just float away," Han explained.

"With the rest of the garbage," Luke noted wryly. "Then what?"

"Better to slowly starve to death in space than die quickly at the hands of the bucketheads," Neena declared. Her expression was dark. "Those bantha-suckers don't get the satisfaction of killing me!"

"I'm with ya, Siren," Han agreed. "The guys'd never let me live it down if I got killed by an Imp that doesn't know that handle from the mouth of their blaster." Neena snickered.

Luke sighed, crossing his arms and looking pointedly at the other man. "What then?" he repeated, forcing his tone to stay calm.

"Then we've got to find a safe port somewhere around here for the repairs," Han shrugged. "Got any ideas?"

"No," Luke replied flatly.

"Might help if I knew where we were," Neena added dryly.

"The Anoat system."

"The Anoat system," Luke repeated. Neena groaned loudly. "There's not much there."

"There is one thing," Neena contradicted him, looking annoyed. She jabbed a finger at a computer mapscreen on the control panel. "There's Lando."

Han smirked, "That could work," he mused.

Neena scoffed. "Will we trade your arm or your leg to pay him, then?" she huffed. Han made a face back at her. Luke wore a puzzled expression as he peered at the section Neena had indicated. Small light points representing several systems flashed by on the screen.

"The Lando system?" Luke asked, brow crinkled. "I've never heard of it."

"I envy you," Neena told him seriously. Han rolled his eyes.

"Lando's not a system, he's a man," Han corrected him. "Lando Calrissian. He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel. You know the type."

"If there's an illegal enterprise to be found, Calrissian has his hands in it," Neena inserted. She hesitated and reluctantly corrected herself. "Except for slavery. I'll give him that. He does have  _some_  principles."

Luke looked wary at the explanation, but didn't reveal his thoughts.

"Bespin," Han read. "It's pretty far, but I think we can make it."

"A mining colony?" Luke read.

"Yeah," Han nodded. "A Tibanna gas mine. Lando conned somebody out of it. We go back a long way, Lando and me." He thought briefly of Tobias Beckett, and Qi'ra. Crimson Dawn, Dryden Vos. He patted the wall at the memory of L3. But there were other memories too. Heists, bets. A strange friendship that had linked them together forever, like it or not.

"Can you trust him?" Luke asked seriously.

"You can't trust any smugglers, hun," Neena snorted. "But smugglers are better than Imps."

"The siren's right, we can't trust him," Han agreed. "But he has no love for the Empire, I can tell you that."

Chewie barked over the intercom. Han quickly changed his readouts and stretched to look out the cockpit window.

"Here we go, Chewie," he said into the intercom. "Stand by. Detach!"

* * *

_**Dagobah** _

In the same clearing as the day before, Leia sat cross-legged with a look on her face that told any who looked that she was deep within a meditation.

"Discovered by the Aing-Tii monks, flow walking was," Yoda told her. "Allows you to view, events occurred previously it does. But, affect them, you will not."

Leia gave a distant nod.

"Focus," Yoda instructed her firmly. "Think of what to see. Flow along the currents of the Force, you will. Read Its' intentions. Important to remain attached to reality, it is, or risk losing yourself, you do."

Leia nodded. Her concentration deepened as she immersed herself in the flowing sensation of the Force.

Force techniques came to her with an ease that Ezra had always grumbled about. She was completely unaware that she was already high-level Knight in skills wise, and some fo things Yoda was teaching her would not have been known by Masters. Flow walking had been confined to Yoda and Kit Fisto, in the last days of the Republic. Both of them had taken months to learn it. Leia had started learning it two weeks prior, and was disappointed with herself for taking so long to be able to try it out properly.

For a second, her form blurred as Yoda watched. While the small troll gave a rare smile of approval for his young apprentice's success, Leia managed to catch a glimpse of her mother. She had focused on a moment she had been a part of, and remembered well, for her first try, on Yoda's advice. None of the occupants of the patched tent she had materialized in noticed her.

Sola, alive but weary by the war and constant running, was passing a young Leia an old locket.  _"It's been passed through our family to the youngest daughter for five generations, now,"_ Sola said in Nubian, the words translating themselves in Leia's mind as easily as if she had last spoken it yesterday, instead of several months. Newly-turned nine-year-old Leia beamed proudly as her mother helped her clasp it around her neck.  _"My sister wore it, and now it's your turn."_  Ryoo (who would have disappeared by the end of the year, presumed dead during an attack on their camp) and Pooja both grinned at her as she showed it off.

Suddenly, Leia was yanked from the past into her proper time. Images flashed behind her eyelids. They were terrifying images that she could barely take in. Han, sinking into a smoking pit. Luke and Neena surrounded by stormtroopers. A city in the clouds, with the shadow of the Dark covering it. She could sense her friends' pain and terror.

"Han!" she cried as the images flickered through her mind. "Luke! Neena!" Her eyes snapped open, and she panted as if she had just sprinted fifteen miles straight without pausing for a breath, or using the Force to help her.

"Hmm," Yoda tutted disapprovingly. "Control, you must learn.  _Control_."

"I saw... I saw a city in the clouds," Leia stammered shakily, her expression half-wild.

"Mmm," Yoda hummed in reply. "Friends you have there."

"They were in danger," Leia said.

"It is the future you see," Yoda told her. "Visions of the Future, prone to was Obi-Wan."

"Will they die?" Leia asked. Yoda closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"Difficult to see," he muttered. "Always in motion is the future."

"I've got to go to them!" Leia declared, scrambling to her feet.

"Decide you must how to serve them best," Yoda told her. "If you leave now, help them you could. But you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered."

Leia froze for a second at that. Then memories of her family and friends, made fresh by her short foray into the past, pushed themselves to the front of her mind again. She clenched her jaw, and continued on her way.

"I might not," she called over her shoulder to Yoda. "And losing them is not an option."

She didn't see the worry in his eyes at that, having already started to Force sprint back to the cottage to get her things.

* * *

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

The powerful pirate starship blasted through space as it headed toward the soft pink planet of Bespin before it finally arrived at the gaseous planet.

Huge billowing clouds formed a canyon as the ship banked around them, heading towards the system's Cloud City. Suddenly, two twin-pod cloud cars appeared and moved toward the Falcon. The speeders drew up alongside the starship.

One of the cloud cars opened fire on the _Falcon_ , its' attack rocking the ship. Inside the ship, Chewie barked his concern.

"No, I don't have a landing permit," Han snapped into transmitter. "I'm trying to reach Lando Calrissian." More flak burst outside the cockpit window and rattled the ship's interior. Luke looked worried, and Neena was glancing towards the gun turrets.

"Whoa!" Han cried hastily. "Wait a minute! Let me explain."

"You will not deviate from your present course," a voice growled through the intercom.

"Rather touchy, aren't they?" Threepio commented. There was a clang as Neena kicked his leg out of annoyance. She swore at the pain that subsequently shot through her toe.

"I thought you knew this person," Luke huffed, hiding his nerves.

Chewie barked and growled at his friend.

"Well, that was a long time ago," Han said defensively in reply. "I'm sure that he's forgotten all about that."

"Oh great," Neena groaned. "You kriffed him over? We're doomed."

"Permission granted to land on Platform Three-two-seven," the intercom voice announced.

"Thank you," Han snapped back. He snapped off the intercom with an angry scowl. Chewie looked at him and grunted. Han turned back to the worried prince, spy and droid.

"There's nothing to worry about," he insisted unconvincingly. "We go way back, Lando and me." No one looked particularly assured by his claim.

"Who's worried?" Luke asked dryly.

"Me," Neena replied immediately.

Han scowled at her, his ears flushing slightly.

The clouds parted to reveal a full view of the city as it bobbed in and out of the cloud surface. The cloud cars and the  _Falcon_  made their way to the gleaming white metropolis' landing platform.

With the cloud cars still guarding it, the  _Falcon_ landed on one of the Cloud City's platforms.

When they were all armed as they stood on the platform. Behind the humans (who were in front), Chewie surveyed the scene warily.

"Oh. No one is here to meet us," Threepio noted.

"I don't like this," Luke grimaced.

"Well, what would you like?" Han huffed.

"Well, they did let us land," Threepio pointed out.

"Look, don't worry," Han sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "Everything's going to be fine. Trust me."

"It's not you we don't trust," Neena told him.

Lando Calrissian, a suave, dashing black man in his thirties, led a group of aides and some members of the Cloud City guard out onto the landing platform. The group, like the other citizens of the city, was made up of a motley collection of aliens, droids, and humans of all descriptions. Lando had a grim expression on his face as he strode onto the landing platform.

"See?" Han gestured at the man approaching them. "My friend." He turned to Chewie to whisper, "Keep your eyes open, okay?"

Chewie growled as Han walked down the ramp. Lando and his men headed across the bridge to meet the space pirate.

Lando stopped ten feet from Han. The two men eyed each other carefully. Lando shook his head.

"Why, you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler!" he cried. "You've got a lot of guts coming here, after what you pulled."

Han pointed to himself innocently, mouthing, "Me?" As Lando moved threateningly toward him. Suddenly, he threw his arms around his startled, long-lost friend and embraced him firmly.

"How you doing, you old pirate?" Lando laughed. "So good to see you! I never thought I'd catch up with you again. Where you been?"

The two old friends embraced, laughing and chuckling.

"Well, he seems very friendly," Threepio said brightly.

"Yes...," Luke replied slowly, still feeling wary. "Very friendly." He glanced at Neena, seeing unease and tension lining her spine. She shot him a tight smile, jerking her head towards Han and Lando with a silent inquiry of  _"Shall we?"_

He nodded, and began leading the way down to the others. I have a bad feeling about this, he thought, wishing Leia were there. He had a feeling that a Jedi would be a good help right then.

* * *

_**Dagobah** _

While her friends unknowingly walked into a trap, Leia was loading a heavy case into the belly of her small ship with the Force. Artoo sat on top of the X-wing, settling down into his cubbyhole with practised ease.

Yoda stood nearby on a log, looking stern. "Leia!" he called to her. "You must complete the training." She revelled for a second in his correct phrasing, before dismissing it.

"I can't keep the vision out of my head," she explained, frustrated at his lack of understanding. "They're my friends. I've got to help them."

"You must not go!" Yoda insisted.

Leia was too distracted by her worry to detect the genuine concern for her in his voice. "But Han, Luke and Neena will all die if I don't."

"You don't know that."

Leia was so stunned by the sound of the familiar voice, she lost her mental grip on the box and it fell to the ground as she looked toward the voice in amazement.

Near Yoda, her deceased Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (alias Ben Cerasi) had materialized as a real, slightly shimmering image. The power and shock of his presence stopped Leia. She stared at him in wide, glistening-eyed shock.

"Even Yoda cannot see their fate," Obi-Wan continued with a firm and gentle smile.

"But I can help them!" Leia snapped out of her shock and held her ground. "Isn't that my duty as a Jedi? To protect the people of the galaxy?"

"This is a dangerous time for you, my young Padawan," Obi-Wan warned her. "When you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the Force. It preys on your heartache."

"Yes, yes," Yoda agreed. "To Obi-Wan you listen. The cave. Remember your failure at the cave!"

"But I've learned so much since then," Leia argued. "I know the danger of the Dark, and I have always resisted it! Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I've begun. You have my word. But I have to go!"

"It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants, Leia," Obi-Wan insisted. "That is why your friends are made to suffer."

"And that is why I have to go," she replied.

"Leia, I don't want to lose you to the Emperor the way I lost Vader." Obi-Wan's voice was raw as he spoke. Leia's blue eyes shimmered with tears as she met his eyes.

"I will die before I Turn," she vowed hoarsely. "But I won't leave them."

"Stopped the Sith must be," Yoda declared. "On this everything depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as their ally will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."

"I'm not choosing the quick and easy path!" Leia snapped back. "I'm choosing to save my friends' lives!"

"Patience," Obi-Wan counselled.

"And sacrifice Han, Luke, Neena and Chewie?" Leia's voice was incredulous.

"If you honour what they fight for... yes!"

Leia's lip trembled for a moment, before her shoulders straightened and she lifted her chin. "I won't leave them, Masters," she insisted. Her voice was calm, and even now. "Everyone has their time to become one with the Force and if this is mine, so be it. I am a Jedi, and I will not shy from my fate."

"If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone," Obi-Wan warned her. "I cannot interfere."

Leia nodded. "I understand." She moved to her X-wing. "Artoo, fire up the converters."

Artoo whistled a happy reply.

Obi-Wan sighed, acknowledging that there was nothing he could do to dissuade her. Leia had always been as stubborn as her mother. But he could impart some more advice, before she went.

"Leia, don't give in to hate – remember that it leads to the dark side." Leia nodded and climbed into her ship.

"Strong is Vader," Yoda warned. "Mind what you have learned. Save you it can."

"I will," Leia promised. "And I'll return. I promise." Artoo closed the cockpit over. Obi-Wan and Yoda stood watching solemnly as the roar of the engines and the wind engulfed them, and their Padawan blasted off.

* * *

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

Luke and Neena walked between Han and Lando as Chewie followed a short distance behind. Long shafts of light poured across the corridor between tall, pure-white columns.

"So you see, since we're a small operation, we don't fall into the... uh... jurisdiction of the Empire," Lando explained.

"So you're part of the mining guild then?" Luke quizzed carefully.

"No, actually," Lando replied. Neena felt a sick feeling in her stomach as she noticed how he avoided meeting any of their gazes. She was a spy, and seeking out traps had been the first thing she had learned from Cassian Andor.

"Our operation is small enough not to be noticed... which is advantageous for everybody since our customers tend to be anxious to avoid attracting any attention to themselves."

The group walked into another corridor and headed for a huge doorway at the far end.

"Aren't you afraid that the Empire's going to find out about this little operation and shut you down?" Han asked curiously.

"That's always been a danger looming like a shadow over everything we've built here," Lando admitted. "But things have developed that will ensure our security. I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever."

Neena paled at that, realizing what must have happened, and reached for her blaster just as the mighty doors to the dining room slid open. Panic engulfed the rebels at the sight that met them.

For, at the far end of the table, seated just in front of the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett, was Darth Vader himself.


	12. Imperial Hospitality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Han is tortured.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Next chapter should be the one we've all been waiting for. "I am your father!" Warning for descriptions of torture.**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Imperial Hospitality**

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

Faster than the blink of an eye, both Han and Neena had drawn their blasters and sent several shots flying directly at Vader.

The Dark Lord calmly, almost mockingly, raised his hand, deflecting the bolts into one of the side walls, where they exploded harmlessly. Just as quickly, the two rebels' weapons zipped into Vader's hands. The 'Emperor's emissary' calmly placed the gun on the table in front of him.

"We would be honoured if you would join us," Vader said. His tone made it clear that they weren't being given an option. Neena clenched her fists tightly to hide their shaking as Luke stepped slightly in front of her. This was the first time she had ever faced down with the Sith lord, though the two others had seen him once, when fleeing the Death Star three years before. Han gave Lando a look of cold betrayal.

"I had no choice," Lando claimed. "They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry."

Han (who had survived due to his people-reading skills) could see the genuine regret in his former friend's expression, but he didn't care. They all knew about Vader and the Inquisitorius' obsession with finding and capturing Leia. He didn't know the specifics of what they did to captured Force-sensitives on Mustafar, save torture, but Leia insisted that it was a fate worse than death, and they all believed her. And now, they were going to be used to lure the love of Han's life to her worst nightmare. All because Han had been stupid enough to trust Lando.

"I'm sorry, too," the smuggler-turned-rebel replied. His voice was bitter and tired, and he turned his back on Lando, bracing himself and silently praying to the Force Leia so revered that she wouldn't come for them.

* * *

_**Space** _

Leia's X-wing raced through thick clouds toward Cloud City. She was grim-faced as she skilfully piloted her course toward Bespin's shining capital city.

In the background, she heard Artoo's anxious beeps and whistles. They were automatically transmitted onto the scope, though it was unnecessary, as she was fluent in droid speak.

"No, Threepio's with them," she replied, into the comlink, her voice tight with the nerves she was struggling to release into the Force. Leia didn't think she could survive it, if she lost another person she loved. Surely the Force wouldn't be so cruel to one of Its' servants?

Artoo whistled another worried inquiry.

"Just hang on," she urged back, not just to her droid. "We're almost there."

* * *

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

Chewbacca was in a Cloud City prison cell. The stark room was flooded with hot light. To add to Chewie's misery, a high-pitched whistle was screeching loudly.

He felt like he was going mad. He hit the wall with giant fists as he paced back and forth across the cell floor. Abruptly, the upper lights went off, sending the small cell into pitch blackness. It reminded him of his first Imperial imprisonment. His scars, hidden by his fur, tingled in remembrance of electric whips digging into him, and the feeling of hot blaster mouths being jabbed into him. He swallowed harshly. Fear over what might have been happening to his friends, especially Han, plagued him. He forced it down.

He was a Wookiee warrior, he reminded himself sternly. If he ever wanted to see Malla or his son again, he needed to be strong.

The prisoner rubbed his eyes and moved to a wall, where he listened for a moment. Then, moaning to himself, he moved to a small platform on the other side of the cell where the disassembled pieces of Threepio lay forlornly.

He picked up the golden droid's head and meditated on it for a moment, barking a few philosophical remarks to himself, about life and the sentience of droids. Then he stuck the robot's head on its' torso and started to adjust the various wires and circuits. Suddenly, the lights in Threepio's eyes sparked to life just as Chewie touched two connectors together.

Threepio immediately began to speak, but his voice was so slow and so low that it was nearly unintelligible.

"Mmmm," Threepio moaned. "Oh, my. Uh, I, uh – Take this off! I, uh, don't mean to intrude here. I, don't, no, no, no... Please don't get up. No!"

Chewie looked at Threepio in bewilderment at the strange words, then scratched his furry head in thought. He got an idea and adjusted some other connections, causing Threepio to immediately begin speaking normally.

"Stormtroopers?" he cried "Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others. Oh, no! I've been shot! Help!"

You're a little late for that, Chewbacca thought darkly as he began trying to settle down the panicking droid.

* * *

Darth Vader strode through the room as two stormtroopers prepared an elaborate torture mechanism. Han was strapped to a rack which tilted forward onto the torture device. Vader casually activated the mechanism, creating two bursts of sparks, one of which hit Han in his face. The door opened, and Vader walked into the attached holding chamber, where Lando and Boba Fett were waiting for him.

"Lord Vader," Lando greeted him. His resentment and anger were unhidden by his neutral façade. Ignoring him, Vader turned to Fett.

"You may take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt after I have Naberrie," the Sith announced. Lando stiffened as his friend's screams of agony began to filter through the torture room door.

"He's no good to me dead," Fett grumbled.

"He will not be permanently damaged," Vader replied coolly. Neither of the men believed him. Everyone knew that no one left Imperial custody without permanent damage. They used a specific serum to heighten the unfortunate prisoner's sense of pain and keep them unconscious as long as possible. If you survived, you were almost guaranteed to have at least mental damage, and usually physical problems too. Most people considered death a mercy.

Still Lando knew there was nothing he could do to help Han. And he was selfish enough not to try, either. "Lord Vader, what about the others?" he asked instead.

Vader turned his skull-helmeted head to look at him, and Lando couldn't suppress his shudder. "They must never again leave this city."

His distress at that, combined with Han's continuing screams and sobs, were enough to give Lando the courage to protest. "That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!"

The air cooled rapidly. "Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly."

Lando swallowed, shrinking back in fear. "No."

"Good," Vader growled. "It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here." With that, he turned and swept into the elevator with Boba Fett. Lando walked swiftly down another corridor, muttering furiously to himself, his mind working rapidly to try and figure out a way to escape the mess he had gotten into.

"This deal's getting worse all the time," he mumbled to himself. Han's sounds of agony continued to echo through the halls.

* * *

By now, Chewie had managed to put a little more of Threepio back together. One arm was connected, but the legs were lying to the side, as yet unattached. There was a small problem, however. It seemed that the Wookiee had accidentally managed to put the droid's head on backwards.

"Oh, yes, that's very good," Threepio declared. "I like that. Oh! Something's not right because now I can't see. Wait. Wait! Oh, my! what have you done? I'm backwards, you stupid furball. Only an overgrown mophead like you would be stupid enough..." Threepio was cut off in mid-sentence as Chewie angrily deactivated a circuit and the droid quickly shut down.

Suddenly, the Wookiee smelt something that reminded him of burnt meat and blood and sat up straight. The door to the chamber slid open and a ragged Han Solo was shoved into the room by two stormtroopers. Barking his concern, the huge Wookiee gave Han a big, but careful hug.

Han was very pale, with dark circles under his left eye. The right was swelling rapidly, his bottom lip was split from his teeth, and dried blood clung to the skin just beneath his broken nose. His limbs trembled slightly and he was soaking wet, not to mention absolutely freezing. He could feel the bruises that were forming all his torso.

Once they had finished electrocuting him, the troopers had moved on to more archaic methods of 'interrogation'. They had shoved his head into a bucket of water repeatedly, holding him under until he was on the verge of fainting from lack of air before yanking him back up just long to take in a single gulp of precious air before repeating the procedure. Then they had gotten some old metal sticks from somewhere, and spent what had felt like hours taking it in turns to beat him with the damn things.

Still, he had held his tongue about the Rebellion, and Leia. Not that they had asked him anything, strangely enough. Especially considering the fact that his and Leia's relationship had become known after a spy had informed the Empire two years ago. Eventually, he had fallen into the sweet bliss of unconsciousness, and been woken by water being dumped over him just before he was shoved into the cell with Chewie.

"I feel terrible," he mumbled as Chewie helped him to a bench attached the wall. Chewie turned, putting himself between his friend and any threats as the door slid open again to reveal Luke and Neena. They, too, looked the worse for wear, though not as much as Han. The troopers pushed them roughly into the cell, and the door slid closed with an almost silent thud.

Weakly, supporting each other, they made their way to the bench where Han was reclining. He looked at Neena first.

"Are you alright?" he croaked at his friend. His voice was raw from his earlier screams. And he suspected that they had put something in the liquid they had used to waterboard him, that had scorched his throat. "They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

_Anything_ , all of them knew, really meant rape. Expression dark, Neena shook her head.

"No," she answered curtly. "Felt me up, knocked me around a bit. Think I've a broken rib. But that's all."

"Luke?" Han shifted his gaze to the pale-faced prince.

He gave a bitter smile. "A few bruises," he said. "Broken wrist, but it's not even my dominant one. I've had worse." They both nodded silently at him.

"Why are they doing this?" Luke wondered. It was the torture itself he questioned, after all, all Imperials were thugs and sadists. But the lack of actual interrogation. Han nodded, his own concerned bemusement reflecting theirs.

"They never even asked me any questions," he informed them hoarsely. Just then, the cell door slid open, and Lando entered with two of his guards.

Luke surged to his feet, and Neena shifted so she was covering the most injured of the party as much as she could.

"Lando," Luke spat the name like a curse.

"Get out of here, Lando!" Han snapped. His hurt at his friend's treachery came through despite the rawness of his voice, and Lando flinched slightly at the evidence of what he had caused. Then he shook his head angrily, focusing.

"Shut up and listen!" he ordered. "Vader has agreed to turn Luke, Neena and Chewie over to me."

"Why?" Neena pressed, her jade green eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Over to you?" Han demanded at the same time.

"They'll have to stay here," Lando admitted, ignoring Neena. "But at least they'll be safe."

"What about Han?" Luke demanded. As much as the smuggler annoyed him, Han was one of his closest friends. And he could just imagine the shattered expression on Leia's face if he died.

Lando looked away. "Vader's giving him to the bounty hunter."

"Vader wants us all dead," Luke coldly declared. Neena nodded, her expression dark.

"He'll never let Luke stay alive, at least," she said. "He's the face of the Alliance. Too much of a threat not to kill us. And they'll have figured out I'm a spy now. Even the Imps aren't  _that_  stupid."

"He doesn't want you at all," Lando insisted. "He's after Naberrie."

"Leia?" Han forced himself into a sitting position, despite the agony caused by the movement. He had suspected it, but hearing it confirmed made fear rush through him. Force, don't let her come, he prayed desperately. Please don't let her come. Don't let her die.

"Lord Vader has set a trap for her," Lando acknowledged solemnly. He had never met Leia Naberrie in person, but the whole galaxy knew about her. And while the Imperials tried to portray her as a dangerous terrorist, the Alliance's counter-propaganda campaign made sure everyone knew about her selfless and tireless work to free the galaxy from the yoke of tyranny.

Luke's mind was racing frantically. "We're the bait," he muttered.

"She's on her way," Lando informed them. Han's rage peaked at the news.

"Perfect," he snarled, images of Leia's body (deceptively small and delicate, despite her strength) broken and bloody imprinting themselves on the back of his eyelids. "You fixed us all pretty good, didn't you?" He spat the final words out. "My friend!"

With a surge of anger-fuelled strength, Han hauled himself off the bench and punched Lando. The two friends were instantly engaged in a frantic close-quarters fight, though the injured man was obviously at a severe disadvantage. Despite his weakness, the guards hit Han with their rifle butts and he flew across the room. Chewie growled and started for the guards. They aimed their laser weapons at the giant Wookiee, but Lando stopped them.

"Stop!" he ordered. "I've done all I can do. I'm sorry that I couldn't do any better, but I have my own problems."

"Yeah, you're a real hero," Han sneered contemptuously as Lando and the guards left.


	13. Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Han is lost, and Leia and Vader battle.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. I think one last chapter after this, but enjoy this. You've all been waiting for it, after all.**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**I Am Your Father**

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

Four armour-suited stormtroopers stood at the ready in the large chamber, which was filled with pipes and chemical tanks. In the middle of the room was a round pit housing a hydraulic platform. Darth Vader and Lando stood side-by-side near the platform. Lando's tense spine showed just how uncomfortable he was with the situation.

"This facility is crude, but it should be adequate to freeze Naberrie for her journey to the Emperor," Vader stated, his arms clasped behind his back. An Imperial soldier appeared before Lando could answer the Sith, if he was planning to.

The soldier bowed deeply, as he spoke. "Lord Vader, a ship is approaching. X-Wing class."

Behind his mask, Vader's twisted mouth curled into a smirk. Leia Naberrie was known to favour X-Wings. It had to be her. "Good. Monitor Naberrie and allow her to land," he ordered.

The soldier bowed again and quickly left the icy chamber.

Lando finally managed to find his tongue, though he kept his tone and body language uncharacteristically submissive. "Lord Vader, we only use this facility for carbon freezing. If you put her in there, it might kill her."

Vader nodded in acknowledgment at that. "I do not want the Emperor's prize damaged," he announced. "We will test it... on Captain Solo."

Lando's face filled with dismay and his eyes widened in horror at that.

* * *

Leia was extremely disturbed by the lack of guards as she maneuvered through the clouds of Bespin. She had never been to the planet before, and she hoped she never would be again.

Worry for her friends and the Force's whispered warnings of danger made her twitchy, and she made herself release her fear and sink into a 'battle trance', as she and Ezra had labelled it, so she could focus better.

Her concerned expression melted into neutrality as she surveyed her display panel.

* * *

There was a great amount of activity on the carbon-freezing platform as a squad of six stormtroopers, led by Boba Fett, brought in the battered forms of Han, Luke, Neena and Chewie.

Six Ugnaughts rushed around as they frantically prepared the chamber for use, and a special coffinlike container was put in place.

Strapped to Chewie's back, with only his head, torso, and one arm assembled, was Threepio. His head faced the opposite direction from Chewie's and the droid was constantly twisting around in a vain effort to see what was going on. His one attached arm was animate and expressive, intermittently pointing, gesturing, and covering his eyes. The remaining pieces of his body were randomly bundled to the Wookiee's back so that his legs and other arm stuck out at odd angles from the pack.

"If only you had attached my legs, I wouldn't be in this ridiculous position," he complained. "Now, remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don't do anything foolish."

"Shut up, Threepio," Neena mumbled. Her words were muffled by her swollen lip, the result of spitting into Fett's eye when he had touched her breast.

Han turned to Lando, a falsely cheerful tone in his still-hoarse voice. "What's going on... buddy?"

The other man glanced away, unable to hold his former friend's gaze. "You're being put into carbon freeze."

Neena's eyes widened in horror and she covered her mouth in shock, Chewie growled furiously, Luke went white. Han's reaction was almost the worst, however. He simply looked at the floor, a sense of resignation falling over him, like he had accepted his death. Ignoring them all, Boba Fett left the group and strode over to Darth Vader.

"What if he doesn't survive?" the bounty hunter growled. "He's worth a lot to me."

"The Empire will compensate you if he dies," Vader assured him off-handedly, before turning to his soldiers. "Put him in!"

Realizing what was about to happen, Chewie let out a wild howl and attacked the stormtroopers surrounding Han. Neena and Luke began struggling, trying to help their friend. Han himself was too weak to do anything as a pair of stormtroopers grabbed him roughly by the upper arms and started to drag him towards the smoking pit. Seeing the Wookiee snapping a man's neck, within seconds, other Imperial reinforcements had joined the scuffle, clubbing the giant Wookiee with their laser weapons.

From the instant of Chewie's first move, Threepio began to scream in panic while he tried to protect himself with his one arm.

"Oh, no!" the droid cried. "No, no, no! Stop, Chewbacca, stop...!"

The stormtroopers were about to bash Chewie in the face when Han intervened.

"Stop, Chewie, stop!" Han yelled. "Do you hear me? Stop!"

"Yes, stop, please!" Threepio agreed urgently. "I'm not ready to die."

In a burst of strength, Han broke away from his captors and lunged for his friends. Vader nodded to the guards to let him go and the pirate quickly managed to break up the fight.

"Chewie! Chewie, this won't help me," he insisted, tugging on the Wookiee's fur. "Hey!" Han gave his best friend a stern look.

"Save your strength," he ordered. "There'll be another time. The others, Leia – you have to take care of her. You hear me?"

Han winked at Chewie with false bravado, Chewie wailing a doleful farewell in reply. In a flash the guards slipped binders on Chewbacca, who was too distraught to protest despite the fact that they were electrified and much too tight.

Han turned to Luke and Neena. They all looked sorrowfully at one another, then Neena dashed in for a tight hug.

"You're a damn good man, Han Solo," she whispered in his ear. "And you're a survivor. You'll survive this too."

"Course I will," he gave a weak grin. He turned to Luke. "Tell Leia I love her," he instructed.

Looking stricken, the prince nodded. "I will," he promised. He was too distracted to notice the faint feeling in the back of his mind. Even if he had, he had no training to alert him to the rapid approach of Leia, who was now rushing through her docking, unaware that she had already arrived too late to save the man she loved.

Tears roll down Neena's face as she watched her friend walk to the hydraulic platform. Luke wrapped an arm around her shoulders, but none of them allowed themselves to look away from what might be Han's final seconds of life.

Han looked one final time at his friends – and then, suddenly, the platform dropped into the steam. Chewie howled, a sound of raw grief. Neena let out an anguished sob as Luke turned away in agony. Lando winced in sorrow. Unbeknowest to everybody else, including Vader, it made a life-changing impression on him. In her ship, Leia bent over in a sudden surge of pain, as if part of her had suddenly turned to ice.

At the same time, fiery liquid began to pour down in a shower of sparks and fluid as great as any steel furnace. Holding Luke and Neena protectively to him, Chewie half-turned away from the sight, giving Threepio a view of the procedure.

"What... what's going on?" he asked. "Turn around, Chewbacca, I can't see. Oh... they've encased him in carbonite. He should be quite well-protected – if he survives the freezing process, that is."

Chewie was in no mood for technical discussion and he gave the droid an angry glance and barked angrily at him, making Threepio huff in offense.

A huge mechanical tong lifted the steaming metal-encased space pirate out of the vat and stood him on the platform. Some Ugnaughts rushed over and pushed the block over onto the platform. They slid the coffinlike structure to the block and lifted the metal block, placing it inside. They then attached an electronic box onto the structure and stepped away. Lando knelt and adjusted some knobs, measuring the heat. He shook his head in disbelieving relief.

"Well, Calrissian, did he survive?" Vader asked, utterly indifferent, though it would be inconvenient if it hadn't worked. He would need a new plan to subdue the girl, if so.

"Yes, he's alive," Lando sighed in relief. "And in perfect hibernation."

Vader turned to Fett, gesturing lazily at the frozen man. "He's all yours' bounty hunter. Reset the chamber for Naberrie."

A second later, another officer came rushing in to announce that, "Naberrie has just landed, my lord."

Vader gave a curt nod at that. "Good. See to it that she finds her way here. Calrissian, take the prisoners to my ship."

"You said they'd be left in the city under my supervision!" Lando protested.

Vader turned to him, lifting his hand and clenching his hand into a fist. "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." Lando's hands went to his throat instinctively as he turns to Luke, Neena, Chewie, and Threepio.

* * *

As Leia and Artoo edged carefully down a deserted corridor, they heard a group of people coming down a side hallway. Artoo let out an excited series of beeps and whistles, causing his mistress to cast a sharp glare at the tiny droid, who stopped in his tracks with a feeble squeak.

Fett entered from a side hallway followed by two guards pushing the floating, encased body of Han Solo. Leia froze in horror at the awful sight. The momentary loss of concentration allowed two stormtroopers, who were following, to spot Leia and open fire on her.

The youth drew her sabre and deflected the fire back at the two troopers, killing them both before they could get off a second shot. The remaining two guards whisked Han into another hallway as Fett lowered his arm and fired a deadly laser at Leia to prevent her following as she clearly wanted to. She deflected it with the Force, and the shot exploded to one side, tearing up a huge chunk of wall.

Leia rushed to a side hallway, but by the time she had reached it, Fett, Han, and the guards were gone, and a thick metal door blocked the passage.

A commotion caught the young Jedi's attention, and she turned to see Luke, Neena, Chewie, Threepio, and Lando being herded down a second hallway by several other stormtroopers. Luke turned just in time to see Leia.

"Leia!" he yelled to her. "Leia, don't – it's a trap! It's a trap!" Before he could finish, he was roughly pulled through a doorway and disappeared from her sight. Leia raced after the group with her Force-enhanced speed, leaving little Artoo trailing behind.

She ran into an anteroom and stopped to get her bearings. Luke and the others were nowhere to be seen, and when she expanded her senses, the commotion was too chaotic and painful to pinpoint where she needed to go.

Behind her, Artoo was scooting down the corridor toward the anteroom when suddenly a giant metal door came slamming down, cutting off Leia's exit. Several more doors clanged shut, echoing through the chamber. That was when Leia registered the feeling of coldness she had long since begun associating with the Dark, and finally made out the mechanical breathing coming from above her.

Warily, Leia began to cautiously walk forward among hissing pipes and steam, searching for the opponent she knew was nearby. Seeing an opening above her, she stopped to look up. As she did so, the platform she was standing on began to move.

Leia rose swiftly into the chamber, borne by the platform. The room was almost deathly quiet. Very little steam escapes the pipes and no one else seemed to be in the large room. But looks could be deceiving, and she could still sense the Dark presence of the Sith.

Warily, Leia walked toward the stairway, her lightsabre held at the ready. She wanted to get to more stable ground. Steam began to build up in the chamber. For most, it would have completely clouded their vision, but Leia simply snapped her eyes closed and allowed the Force to guide her.

A few moments later, she paused, re-opened her eyes and looked up through the steam. She could see a dark figure standing on a walkway above her. Aided by a Force-jump, Leia moved up to face Vader. She felt calmly confident, ready to engage her enemy. The Force was on her side, and she was but a vessel of Its' will.

Studying her, Vader felt a tendril of concern. He had not expected her to be so entrenched in the Light, as if she were a Master of the Old Jedi Order, who had faced dozens of tests of her faith, instead of a young Padawan who had been Master-less for almost as long as she had been a Jedi. He kept his concern suppressed, however, and assured himself that, as his daughter and inferior in power, she would bow to his will.

"The Force is with you, young Naberrie," Vader acknowledged, despite that. It was true. Leia shined with strength from the Force in a way that only Anakin ever had, but her Force-presence was untainted by bitterness or anger, though there were traces of it, laced with grief.

"But you are not a Jedi yet."

Leia fell into a Djem So opening stance in answer. In an instant, Vader's own sword was lit, filling the room with the feeling of a Darkness-tainted kyber crystal. Leia grimaced briefly, before suppressing all emotion as completely as she could and lunging. It was a good move, strong and familiar to her, but Vader easily repelled the blow. Again, Leia attacked, and the swords of the two combatants clash in a vigorous battle. Leia's blue blade clanged against Vader's red, turning them both yellow and sending out sparks.

Soon enough, Leia found herself switching to Soresu and on the defensive. She was panting, and sweating from both the strain of holding her enemy at bay, and the heat of the steam. Worst of all, she knew that Vader was merely toying with her, and it stung her pride. The fact that not even Obi-Wan, the greatest sabrefighter of his Order, could defeat Vader, preyed at the back of her mind. She knew the thoughts were the result of the Dark, whispering despair in her mind, but she could do nothing to remove them, when it was taking all her focus to hold Vader off.

While her friends tried (and failed) to save Han, Leia and Vader remained locked in intense combat on the platform overlooking the chamber. Their sabres clashed, making the platform sway. Switching to Vaapad without warning, (her trademarked style was that she switched from style to style so quickly her opponents couldn't keep it, and it was paying off now) Leia managed to drive Vader back, forcing him to use defensive tactics.

"You have learned much, young one," Vader complimented the skilled young Padawan.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises," Leia retorted, sending a blast of steam into Vader's mask to fog up his vision. Vader avoided it and made two quick moves, hooking Leia's sabre out of her hand and sending it flying off the platform. A blast lightning aimed at her feet forced the youth to jump back to protect herself. Losing her balance as Vader suddenly forced the platform to move, Leia was forced to tuck and roll down the stairs to the circular carbon-freezing platform. There she sprawled on the floor, surprised, bruised and shaken.

Just in time she looked up to see Vader, like a giant black bird, flying right at her. Leia rolled to the side and back to her feet as Vader landed. Crouching, Leia kept her gaze on her enemy, not letting anything distract her.

"Your destiny lies with me, Naberrie," Vader declared. "Kenobi knew this to be true."

"I will never Turn!" Leia snapped back determinedly, mentally searching for her lightsabre as she spoke.

Behind her, the hydraulic elevator cover had opened noiselessly. All the while, Leia slowly, cautiously moved back, away from the Dark Lord. Suddenly, Vader attacked so forcefully that Leia lost her balance and fell back into the opening.

There was a loud rumble, and in an instant freezing steam rose to obscure Vader's vision. He turned aside and deactivated his shining blade.

"All too easy," he sneered. "Perhaps you are not as strong as the Emperor thought."

Through the steam behind Vader something blurred upward. Liquid metal began to pour into the pit. Vader turned back around – and then looked up. He saw Leia, who had leaped fifteen feet straight up and who was now hanging from some hoses on the carbonite outlet.

"Impressive...," Vader whispered. "most impressive."

Leia jumps down to the platform where he is separated from Vader by the steaming carbonite pit. She raised her hand and her sabre, which had fallen on another part of the platform, swiftly jumped into her outstretched hand and was instantly re-ignited. Vader immediately lit his sabre in response.

"Kenobi taught you well," Vader told her. "You have controlled your fear... now embrace your anger, and let it strengthen you."

"Who said I was angry?" she shot back.

Vader was surprised to discover that she was being genuine. When he prodded her Force-presence, he realized that she was floating in a trance. Any of the few taunts she had made were prompted by her mind, not by her emotions. He felt a surge of anger, for he had never managed to achieve that state of serenity all Jedi strove for and she had gained so easily.

While he was distracted, Leia pressed her advantage, moving in with a series of powerful Ataru attacks that forced Vader back onto the defensive once again.

"Only your hatred can destroy me," Vader warned.

Breathing hard, Leia ignored him and jumped in the air, turning a somersault over Vader. She landed on the floor and slashed at Vader as the room continued to fill up with steam.

"I," she panted. "Will never give in to the Dark!"

Vader retreated before Luke's skilful sabre. He blocked the blade, but lost his balance and fell into the outer rim of pipes.

Meanwhile, the energy Leia had used in her fight with Vader had brought her to the point of collapse, despite the help of the Force techniques Yoda had drilled her on. She paused for a moment to activate her Force Body so she could continue past her swiftly approaching natural limits. It was dangerous, but she hardly had a choice in the matter. That done, she moved to the edge and looks down, but there was no sign of Vader.

Deactivating her lightsabre, she hooked it onto her belt, and lowered herself into the pit.

A few minutes later, she was moving through a tunnel-like entrance, and cautiously approaching the reactor room, where she could sense Vader's presence. She ignited her sabre and moved into the room and toward a large window as Vader entered. Again, Leia raised her blade and moved forward to attack.

Behind Leia a large piece of machinery detached itself from the wall and came smashing forward toward her back. She quickly turned at the sound of the Force's warning cry and cut it in half just as another machine came hurtling at her.

Using the Force, Leia managed to deflect it and send it flying as if it had hit an invisible shield. A large pipe detached and came flying at her. She deflected it. Sparking wires pulled out of the wall and began to whip at the youth. Small tools and equipment came flying at her. It was a relentless bombardment from all sides.

Leia did her best to deflect everything, but there was too many and soon enough she was bloodied and covered in bruises. One machine glanced off her sabre and went flying out the large window, before a piece of machinery hit the Jedi and she was knocked out of the window into the connecting gantry.

Leia fell onto the platform of the gantry, rolled to the side, and found herself hanging over the edge, holding her deactivated lightsabre in hand. She put her weapon on her belt and began to scramble back up.

She moved along the railing and up to the control room. Vader lunged at her immediately and Leia quickly raised her lit sabre to meet Vader's.

Sparks flew as they duelled, Vader gradually forcing the exhausted young woman backward toward the gantry.

"You are beaten," Vader snarled harshly at her. "It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Kenobi did."

Leia answered by rolling sideways and thrusting her sabre at Vader so viciously that he nicked him on the shoulder. The black armour sparked and smoked. Vader staggered, but immediately recovered from the blow.

Leia backed off along the narrow end of the gantry as Vader came at him, slashing at the young Jedi with his sword. Leia made a quick move around the instrument complex attached to the end of the gantry. Vader's sword came slashing down, cutting the complex loose; it began to fall, but was caught by a wind sent by Leia and blown upward out of the way.

She glanced at the instrument complex floating away. At that instant, Vader's sword came down across Leia's right forearm, cutting off her hand and sending her sabre flying.

Despite being filled with burning agony, Leia managed to keep her cool and she squeezed her forearm under her left armpit and backed away along the gantry to its' extreme end. Vader followed as the wind subsided. Leia gripped at pole, glancing around herself and feeling her heart sink as the remnants of her trance faded away under the strength of her pain and worry.

There was nowhere else to go. Leia was trapped between a lethal drop, and a Sith Lord.

"There is no escape," Vader growled at her. "Don't make me destroy you. You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

"I'll never join you!" Leia hissed back defiantly. "I'll never join the Dark Side!"

"If you only knew the power of the Dark Side," Vader mused bitterly. "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father."

Confusion flashed over the young woman's expression. "My father was a rebel espionage pilot," she snapped, trying to cover her bewilderment. "He was killed by Imperial troops on a reconnaissance mission."

"A lie," Vader replied simply. "That worthless man was not your father, nor was his pathetic wife your mother."

"You're lying!" Leia snarled, anger and confusion warring inside her. Even as she spoke, the Force whispered things she didn't want to hear in her mind.

"I am not," Vader strode closer, and she pressed her back against the railing, wanting distance. She didn't want to hear whatever he was going to say, because she knew it would be the truth. A terrible, world-destroying truth.

"I am your father!"


	14. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia's denial.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Denial of Darkness**

_**Cloud City, Bespin** _

Lando, Luke, Neena and Chewie all raced across the hanger for the  _Millennium Falcon_  as a battalion of stormtroopers reached the main door. Lando and Luke held off the troops as Neena and the droids scrambled to get on board with Chewie.

As Chewie bounded to the ship Threepio on his back, Threepio hit his head on the top of the ramp. "Ouch!" he cried. "Oh! Ah! That hurt, Bend down, you thoughtless... Ow!"

Ignoring him completely, Chewie and Neena rushed to start up the ship. The giant engines began to whine as Lando and Luke dashed up the ramp under a hail of laser fire.

"Luke! Go!" Lando yelled urgently at the prince, grabbing his elbow and beginning to half-drag him when he stumbled.

Inside, Artoo dragged the partially assembled Threepio down the corridor of the Falcon.

"I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me," Threepio complained to his friend. "Of course, I've looked better."

Artoo beeped understandingly.

In the cockpit, Chewie worked the controls as Neena sat in Han's seat and the two men watched anxiously over their shoulders. As Chewie pulled back on the throttle, the ship began to move.

Outside, the Imperials watched as the  _Millennium Falcon_  gracefully lifted up into the twilight sky and roared away from the city. Troops started to fire after it and a group of TIE fighters took off in pursuit of the fugitives.

* * *

Leia was shocked, furious, terrified and panicked. A recipe for disaster in regards to a Jedi at any stage. She shook her head in a futile attempt at denial. Bile rose in her throat and her eyes shimmered with tears as her limbs trembled.

"Liar," she croaked out, sounding utterly broken. "You're  _lying_."

She desperately tried to deny the whispering of the Force, as It silently confirmed the Dark Apprentice's terrible words.

It was worse than any of her nightmares. Leia truly, genuinely hated the Sith and the Dark. It was not Jedi-like to hate, but it was human, and she was human first. The Sith were the incarnation of all the terrible things in the galaxy that she stood against. When she said that she would prefer to kill herself then to Turn away from the Light and join them, she meant it completely.

The Sith were responsible, in one way or another, for the deaths of everyone she had loved and lost. The thought of being the child of  _Darth Vader_  disgusted her. She and Ezra had dreaded Turning Dark more than any other fate. Dying was fine. When you died, you became one with the Force and re-joined your lost loved ones. But Turning? Becoming an evil antithesis of everything you had ever stood and fought for? It was a fate far, far worse than simply dying.

She suddenly felt as if poisonous evil was running through her veins instead of blood.

"No," she denied again, clinging to the memory of her _ **real**_  father.

Darred Janren Naberrie, blonde haired, grey-eyed. Originally an architect on Naboo, he had joined the Rebellion as a spy/pilot. He had been the best father. He taught her to fly, and one of her earliest memories was of sitting on the floor of their old family estate at Varykino, having a tea party. The Empire had killed him.

"No," she repeated adamantly, her voice growing in strength. "That's not true! That's impossible!"

Vader began to grow annoyed by her refusal to acknowledge the truth. "Search your feelings," he ordered. "You know it to be true."

"No!" she shrieked, completely hysterical as she continued to cling to her memories (Jedi-perfect) of her father. "No! No!"

"Leia," Vader stalked nearer, making her recoil dangerously, only barely remaining on the platform. He stopped. "You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and we can rule the galaxy as father and daughter. Come with me. It's the only way."

Vader put away his lightsabre and held his hand out to Leia. She stared him, wild-eyed.

" _How's my little Firefly?"_  she remembered her father greeting her every time he returned. His exhaustion would be evident, even when she was a toddler, but he would still greet her family with joy. No matter how bad the shadows under his eyes were, he would still be happy to indulge herself and her sisters in whatever game they wanted, whether it was dress-up or hide-and-seek. The day he went on the mission that killed him, he had kissed her forehead, told her he loved her, and showed her the clumsily-made pendant she had put together from scraps as a present, around his neck. He had said he was so proud of her.

As she remembered Darred, and stared at Vader's hand, a sense of calm finally came over Leia, and she made her decision.

This was her test, and the image of not just her father, but her mother and sisters and grandparents, all strengthened her in her resolve. Pooja expected to meet up with her at the rendezvous, she recalled. Learning that she was lost, not to death but to evil, would shatter her. Not mention the effects on the Rebel Alliance as a whole, if the Last Jedi turned against them. Han was gone, maybe forever, and Vader had done it.

Leia looked up and met Vader's eyes through the helmet. Then, very deliberately, she straightened. In the next instant she turned and stepped off the gantry platform into space.

The Dark Lord hurried over and looked over the platform. He could see Leia falling far below, making no effort to stop or slow her fall. Eventually, the wind began to blow at Vader's cape and the torrent finally forced him back, away from the edge. He growled in fury as he watched her tumble downwards.

The wind soon faded and the wounded Jedi began to drop fast, unable to grab onto anything to break her fall. Suddenly Leia was sucked into an exhaust pipe in the side of the shaft. When Vader saw that, he turned and hurried off the platform.

Leia tumbled through the exhaust pipe. She slid painfully to the end of the slickly polished pipe and stopped as her feet hit a circular grill and knocked it open. Leia clawed at the surface of the pipe, too exhausted and upset to use the Force and trying to keep herself from sliding out into space. Unable to hang onto the pipe, Leia tumbled out, emerging at the undermost part of Cloud City. Reaching out desperately, she managed to grab onto on electronic weather vane.

"Master, Master please!" She tried to pull herself up on the weather vane but slipped back down. She hooked one of her legs around the fragile instruments. All the while, a powerful current of air rushed out at her from the exhaust pipe.

"Master," she pled helplessly, fully aware of the futility of it. Then an idea struck her. "Luke!" There was an ominous cracking sound from the base of the weather vane and a piece broke off, falling into the clouds far below.

"Hear me!" Leia called desperately. "Luke!"

* * *

Back on board the Falcon, Luke seemed to be lost in a fog, his expression troubled. Chewie and Neena were busy working together to operate the ship. Lando stood next to the Wookiee, watching a readout on the control panel.

"Leia," Luke said slowly, his expression steadying. "We've got to go back for her."

"Leia?" Neena repeated, turning from her controls as Chewie growled in surprise.

"What?" Lando asked.

"I know where she is," Luke explained. He was growing more urgent, as if he could hear Leia calling him for help. Hell, given her powers, there was every chance that she was reaching out to him through the Force. She needed him.

"But what about those fighters?" Lando protested. Chewie barked in reluctant agreement with Lando. Leia was his friend, and he had promised to look after her for Han, but he hadn't seen her, and there were TIEs everywhere. How would they get to her?

"Chewie, just do it," Luke ordered determinedly.

"But what about Vader?" Lando persisted.

"We're not leaving her!" Neena snapped at him as she began fiddling with the controls, while Chewie turned on Lando with an ominous growl.

The newcomer raised his hands in a soothing gesture. "All right, all right, all right."

The  _Falcon_  made a graceful banking turn back toward Cloud City.

Vader entered the landing platform and watched as the speck that was the  _Millennium Falcon_  disappeared in the direction of his daughter. As he had suspected, Leia had called out to her untrained but sensitive friend for aid. The wind blew at his cape. He turned to two aides who are standing near the entrance to the landing platform.

"Bring my shuttle," he ordered coldly.

At the bottom of the city, having put herself in a trance to protect herself, Leia hung upside-down on the weather vane as her body shifted in the wind.

The  _Falcon_  dived to the underside of the floating city. Three TIE fighters closed in on the starship. Neena, who had dashed to the main gun turret, fired viciously at them.

Meanwhile, in the cockpit, Luke was trying to remain calm. Lando spoke, pointing out the cockpit window.

"Look, someone's up there."

"It's Leia," Luke declared. "Chewie, slow down. Slow down and we'll get under her. Lando, open the top hatch."

Lando rushed out of the cockpit.

Leia hung by one arm from the crossbar of the weather vane. She slipped from the bar and grabbed onto the pole of the vane as the  _Falcon_  banked towards her, the fall having woken her from her trance. The _Falcon_ positioned itself under the Jedi Padawan as Lando moved up through the opening of the hatch. Leia began to slide and finally fell from the vane into space.

Through the cockpit window, Luke watched with horror as Leia started to fall from the bottom of the city. His heart thudded in his chest as the ship gained on her.

"Okay," Luke muttered, struggling to remain calm. "Easy, Chewie."

The  _Falcon_  closed in on Leia. Three TIE fighters raced toward the Falcon, firing away and dodging Neena's return fire.

The hatch popped open with a loud hiss of pressure and Lando reached out to help the battered rebel to get inside the ship. Flak burst all around it as the  _Falcon_  banked away from the city. Back inside the cockpit, Luke and Chewie struggled with the controls.

"Lando?" Luke called into the intercom. "Do you have her?"

"Okay, let's go," Lando called back through his own intercom.

"I can't hold them," Neena added a warning as she continued firing.

The  _Falcon_  raced away, closely followed by the remaining two of the original three TIE fighters, both of which kept up a heavy laser assault on the fleeing starship. They all knew it was more than their lives were worth to fail to capture the insurgents.

Explosions erupted all around the cockpit, buffeting the ship wildly. Chewie howled as he frantically tried to control the ship. Luke and Chewie turned to see Leia, bloody and battered and missing her left arm from the elbow down, enter the cockpit supported by Lando.

She was alive.


	15. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rebels escape.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. The sequel: The Light's Revival, will be up in a few days, so keep an eye out.**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Return to the Rebellion**

Luke jumped up immediately and pulled her into a tight hug filled with relief while Chewie barked in joy at the sight of his friend.

"Oh, Luke," Leia cried, embracing him one-handed and burying her head in his shoulder. As she always did after reuniting with her friend after a long period of separation, she felt as if a missing part of her had just slid back into place. Though she wondered, as Luke pulled back, how he would react to her new knowledge. Vader had helped to destroy his home and people, after all.

"All right, Chewie," Lando interjected tensely. "Let's go."

Luke wrapped Leia's uninjured arm around his shoulders and helped her from the cockpit as another huge blast rocked the ship.

After tending to her wounds as best he could, and leaving Leia to rest on her and Han's shared bunk, Luke hurried back to the cockpit. Neena was still in the turret, trying to hold the TIEs at bay long enough for them to get to hyperspace.

All over the ship muted alarm buzzers sounded.

Lando, who had taken over Han's seat, anxiously watched the flashing lights on the control panel and hurriedly adjusted some switches. Seated next to him, Chewie pointed out a new blip appearing on the panel.

"Star Destroyer," Luke recognized grimly.

"All right, Chewie," Lando breathed. "Ready for light-speed."

" _If_  your people fixed the hyperdrive," Luke pointed out darkly. Another explosion rocked the ship and he noticed a green light on the panel next to her flash on. "All the coordinates are set. It's now or never."

Chewie barked in agreement.

"Punch it!" Lando exclaimed. The Wookiee shrugged and pulled back on the light-speed throttle. The sound of the ion engine changed... it was winding up. Their faces were tense and expectant. But nothing happened, and the engine turned back off.

Chewie let out a frustrated howl. Over the intercom, Neena swore. The flak still violently rocked the ship.

"They told me they fixed it," Lando complained. "I trusted them to fix it. It's not my fault!"

Chewie got up from his chair and stalked out of the cockpit. He gave Lando an angry shove as he stormed past him. Luke buried his head in his hands in a fit of despair and exhaustion.

In the distance the TIE fighters continued their chase, still shooting lasers. Vader's Star Destroyer moved behind them, determinedly following the  _Falcon_.

Inside the main room, Artoo was beeping while he worked to connect some wires to Threepio who now had one leg attached. Chewie entered through the doorway, grunting to himself.

"Noisy brute," Threepio grumbled. "Why don't we just go into light-speed?"

Artoo beeped in response.

"We can't?" Threepio repeated. "How would you know the hyperdrive is deactivated?" Artoo whistled knowingly.

"The city's central computer told you? Artoo-Detoo, you know better than to trust a strange computer. Ouch! Pay attention to what you're doing!"

Chewie was in the pit, trying to loosen something with an enormous wrench. Frustrated, he used the wrench like a club and hit the panel.

In the cockpit, Luke and Lando, seated in front of the control panel, were suddenly sprayed by a shower of sparks.

In her and Han's bed, Leia twitched as she realized that Vader, and his ship, were very near. She felt resigned to her fate. She could sense that she was beaten, more emotionally than physically. And seeing as how she refused to Turn to the Dark, it meant that she would have to die. She just hated the thought of her friends dying with her. And because of her.

"Vader," she whispered softly. Silently, she vowed to herself that whoever shared her blood didn't matter. Vader would _never_ be her father. Darred _always_ would.

She heard Vader's call through the Force.  _ **"Leia, my daughter, come with me."**_

"Uncle Ben, why didn't you tell me?" she groaned, trying to block Vader from her mind and using a nickname that she hadn't used since she was a child. Suddenly, she wondered if the reason Obi-Wan had come in disguise to her house so often (if you could call twice a year 'often', which, for the most-wanted person in the galaxy to go repeatedly, you could.) was not so much due to her parents' and grandparents' positions in the Rebellion and to teach her little Force-tricks, but to make sure her Sith ancestry wasn't making herself known. The suspicion stung, as she had always loved spending time playing with him. She thought he had cared for her, had it all been a lie? Had he spent years watching her for signs of Darkness?

Tears leaked out of her closed eyelids.

Back in the cockpit, Lando and Luke were at the controls of the Falcon, trying to keep out of range of the TIEs. They could hear Neena in the turret. She had completely gotten rid of her court-upbringing, and was busy swearing up a storm as she struggled with her gun. Meanwhile, in the ship's hold, Chewie continued to work frantically on the hyperdrive mechanism.

"Chewie!" Lando pressed the Wookiee over the intercom. "We can't do this for much longer." The _Falcon_  raced through space followed very closely by the TIE fighters and the huge Star Destroyer.

Leia entered the cockpit and looked out the window. She was almost unconscious with pain and depression.

"It's Vader," she announced bleakly.

" _ **Leia...,"**_ she heard him whisper to her again.  _ **"it is your destiny."**_

"Why didn't you tell me?" she moaned to herself under her breath.

In the hold, Artoo raced to a control panel and started working on a circuit board. Furious, Threepio stood on one leg, yelling. "Artoo, come back at once! You haven't finished with me yet! You don't know how to fix the hyperdrive. Chewbacca can do it. I'm standing here in pieces, and you're having delusions of grandeur!"

Artoo moved a circuit on a control panel. Suddenly, the control panel lit up. In the cockpit, Luke and Lando were thrown into their seats while only Leia's Jedi reflexes and balance saved her from falling as the  _Millennium Falcon_  unexpectedly shot into hyperspace.

The ship tilted up and Artoo toppled into the pit on top of Chewie.

"Oh, you did it!" Threepio cried joyfully. Chewbacca rolled his eyes at the droid's instant turn-around.

* * *

The _Falcon_  soared into infinity and away from the huge Star Destroyer which seemed, in contrast, to stand still.

On the bridge, Admiral Piett and another captain glanced at Vader in terror.

Vader turned slowly and walked off the bridge, his hands held behind his back in a contemplative gesture.

* * *

Three days later, the _Millennium Falcon_  was attached to a huge Rebel cruiser by a docking tube. Rebel fighters moved about the giant cruiser in a rotating formation, and a Rebel transport ship hovered near the fleet.

Lando sat in the pilot's seat as he talked into the comlink. Chewie was busily throwing a variety of switches in preparation for take-off.

"Leia, we're ready for take-off."

"Good luck, Lando," she replied through the comlink.

"When we find Jabba the Hut and that bounty hunter, we'll contact you," he told her.

Leia was speaking into the comlink as a medical droid worked on her hand. Pooja and Luke stood near her while Threepio and Artoo looked out the window.

"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine," she promised.

"Leia, we'll find Han. I promise."

"Chewie, I'll be waiting for your signal," she answered.

Chewie's wail came over the comlink.

"Take care, you two," she continued. "May the Force be with you."

She clicked off the link and looked down at her hand. A metalized type of bandage had been wrapped around her wrist. The medical droid made some adjustments in a tiny electronic unit, then pricked each one of her fingers.

"Ow!" she yelped instinctively.

Pooja leaned over to rub her shoulders comfortingly. "Don't worry honey," she murmured. "Almost done."

"Yeah," she muttered as she wriggled her fingers, made a fist, and relaxed it. Her hand was now completely functional.

With her sister's help she got up and walked over to Luke and Neena. Together they stood at the large window of the medical centre looking out on the Rebel Star Cruiser and a dense, luminous galaxy swirling in space. Luke put his arm around Neena and Leia, and Pooja linked hands with her baby sister. The droids stood next to them, and Threepio moved closer to Artoo to put his arm on him. The group watched as the  _Millennium Falcon_  moved into view, made a turn, and zoomed away into space.

While Luke, Leia, Pooja, Neena and the droids stand, looking out the window of the star cruiser, two escort fighters joined the large ship. Slowly, the cruiser turned and moved away into space. Things were silent for a moment, before Luke's comlink buzzed with a message. He checked it before turning to the girls.

"The Council is ready to meet with us," he announced.

Leia, who had been the one to request a meeting with the Leaders of the Rebel Alliance, swallowed anxiously. She knew revealing the truth was the right thing to do, but she still didn't like to do it. Pooja squeezed her hand in comfort.

"Whatever it is, Firefly," she said, using their father's old nickname for the youngest Naberrie girl. "We're with you."

Leia gave a strained smile, and the group made their way to the council room.

It was an intimidating array of figures, even if half of them were there via hologram: General Hera Syndulla, commander of the Phoenix Squadron. General Rieest, the commander of their ground forces, General Dodonna and Admiral Ackbar, the leaders of the Naval forces, General Draven, in charge of the Intelligence, as well as Mon Mothma and Luke, the two 'non-combatants', who were the propaganda leaders and public faces of the Alliance. Since Obi-Wan's death, Mon Mothma had acted as the head of the council.

Neena and Pooja stood in the corner as moral support, while Luke took his seat at the table. None of them knew why she had asked to meet with the Council. Perhaps she should have told them what she'd learned earlier, but she hadn't been able to get the words out. Leia prayed to the Force she was right in the belief that knowing her lineage wouldn't turn them against her. She didn't know what she would do if they hated her.

"Colonel Naberrie," Mon Mothma greeted her, taking up the role of spokesperson for the illustrious group.

Upon returning to the Alliance, Leia had been given a promotion to Colonel, meaning she was now just a step below General, and the highest ranking person in the Rebellion, save for the council themselves.

"What is it that you wanted to speak to us about?" Mon Mothma asked.

Leia inhaled deeply as she met the Chandrilian woman's eyes. She looked tired and sad. Unsurprising. As of yet, no one had confirmed if her son Jobin had been killed outright in the Battle of Hoth, or if he had been captured or simply forced to go underground to avoid the Imperials' pursuit, but everyone suspected the worst.

Leia had the highest esteem for Mon Mothma, and always had. Ever since she had been escorted to the Alliance by the Ghost, she had admired her courage in openly defying the Empire by condemning the Emperor's actions and helping to unite the various Rebel cells. Even when Leia had disagreed with Mon Mothma's decisions, such as when she had refused to help Atollon when Chopper Base was attacked, she still appreciated her strength and conviction.

She hated to think of the woman exiling her from the Rebellion for what she was about to reveal, but she would understand the decision if that was what Mon Mothma and the rest of the Council decided to do. She had to go back to Dagobah at some point anyway. Still, the Alliance was her home. She didn't want to leave it.

"Madam, Your Highness, Admiral, Generals," she began, summoning her courage. "I have recently discovered some information, and I thought it best to inform yourselves of it, for, well, for various reasons."

"You're not usually so vague and indirect, Leia," Hera noted with a frown as her lekku flicked. "What's wrong?"

Leia's eyes fell to the floor for a moment before she looked at them again. "Darth Vader believes that I am his daughter," she blurted out in a sudden rush of adrenaline. "And I think that he may be right. Biologically, at least."

Whatever the members of the meeting had expected her to say, it hadn't been that she might be the child of the second most evil being in existence, possibly who had ever existed. They stared at her in shocked disbelief. She couldn't bring herself to meet any of their gazes.


End file.
